VIEW 



OF THE 

Evidences of Christianity. 



IN THREE PARTS. 



PART I. 

OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, 
AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM 
THE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR OTHER MIRACLES. 

PART II. 

OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

PART III. 

A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF SOME POPULAR OBJECTIONS, 

BY WILLIAM PALEY, D D 

SUBDEAN OF LINCOLN. 

.4 ISEW EDITION. 



lonison : 

rRINTED FOR BALDWYN AND CO. NEWGAtE STREET 
SAWERS, GLASGOW; AND CARPRAE, EDINBURGH. 



1817. 



6. .too, Priuter.Greville Street. Lo..»io,.. 



TO 



THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVERENO 

JAMES YORK, D.D. 

LORD BISHOP OF ELY. 

My Lord, 

When , five years ago, an important Station 
in the University of Cambridge awaited your 
Lordship's Disposal, you were pleased to 
ofFer it to me. The Circumstances under 
which this Offer was made demand a Public 
Acknowledgement. I had never seen your 
Lordship : I possessed no Connection which 
could possibly recommend me to your Fa- 
vour , — I was known to you only by my 
Endeavours, in common with many others, 
to discharge my Duty as a Tutor in the Uni- 
versity ; and by some very imperfect, but 
certainly well-intended, and, as you thought, 
useful Publications since. In an Age by 
no means wanting in Examples of honour- 
able Patronage, although this deserves not to 
be mentioned in respect of the Object of your 
Lordship's Choice, it is inferior to none in 
the Purity and Disinterestedness of the Mo- 
tives which suggested it. 



iv DEDICATION. 

How the following Work may be received, 
I pretend not to foretell. My first Prayer 
concerning it is. That it may do good to any ; 
my second, Hope that it may assist, what it 
hath always been my earnest Wish to pro- 
mote, the Religious Part of an Academical 
Education. If in this latter view it might 
seem, in any degree, to excuse your Lordship's 
Judgment of its Author, I shall be gratified 
by the Reflection, That, to a Kindness flow- 
ing from Public Principles, I have made the 
best Public Return in mv Power. 

in the mean Time, and in every Event, I 
rejoice in the Opportunity here afforded me, 
of testifying the Sense I entertain of your 
Lordship's Conduct, and of a Notice which 
I regard as the most flattering Distinction of 
my Life. 

I am, my Lord, 
with Sentiments of Gratitude and Respect, 
your Lordship's 
faithful and most obliged Servant, 



W. Paley. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preparatory Considerations. — Of the Antecedent Credi- 
bility of Miracles — — I 

PART 1. 

Of the direct Historical Evidence of Christianity, and 
zoherein it is distinguished from the Evidence alleged for 
other Miracles. 

Propositions stated — — 10 



PBOPOSmON L 
That there is satisfactory Evidence, that many, professing 
to be original Witnesses of the Christian Miracles, 
passed their Lives in Labours, Dangers, and Sufferings, 
voluntarily undergone in Attestation of the Accounts 
which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their 
Belief of those Accounts ; and that they also submitted, 
from the same Motives, to new Rules of Conduct — ibid. 



CHAPTER L 

Evidences of the Sufferings of the First Propagators of 
Christianity, from the Nature of the Case — 11 

CHAPTER IL 

Evidence of the Sufferings of the First Propagators of 
Christianity, from Profane Testimony — 24? 

CHAPTER in. 

Indirect Evidence of the Sufferings of the First Propaga- 
tors of Christianity, from the Scriptures, and other 
Ancient Christian Writings — — 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
Direct Evidence of the same — — 37 



CHAPTER V. 
Observations upon the preceding Evidence 



— 54 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

That the Story, for which the First Propagdtors of Chris- 
tianity suffered, was miraculous — 6 1 

CHAPTER VH. 

That it was in the main the Story which we have now 
proved by indirect Considerations — 66 

CHAPTER Vni. 

The same proved, from the Authority of our Historical 
Scriptures — — 83 

CHAPTER IX. 

Of the Authenticity of the Historical Scriptures, in Eleven 
Sections — 9S 

Section I. — Quotations of the Historical Scriptures, 
by Ancient Christian Writers — 102 

Section II. — Of the peculiar Respedt with which they 
were quoted — — 135 

Section III. — The Scriptures were, in very early Times, 
collected into a distinct Volumte — - 1 40 

Section IV. — And distinguislited by appropriate Names 
and Titles of Respect — — J 4i> 

Section V. — Were publicly read and expounded in the 
Religious Assemblies the early Christians — 148 

Section VI. — Commentaries, &c. were anciently written 
upon the Scriptures — — 151 

Section VII. — They were received by ancient Chris- 
tians of different Sects and Persuasions — I5& 

Section VIII. — The Four Gospels, the Acts of the 
Apostles, Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, the First Epis- 
tle of John, and the First of Peter, were received with- 
out doubt by those who doubted concerning the other 
Books of our present Canon — l6j 

Section IX. — Our present Gospels were considered by 
the Adversaries of Christianity, as containing the Ac- 
counts upon which the religion was founded — 17^ 

Section X. — Formal Catalogues of authentic Scriptures 
were published, in all which our present Gospels were 
included — — 179 

Section XL — The above Propositions cannot be predi- 
cated of those Books which are commonly called 3A.po- 
eryphal Books of tlie New Testament — IS^ 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



CHAPTER X. PAGE 
Eecapitulation — 188 



Of the direct Historical Evidence of Christianity/^ and 
wherein it is distinguished from the Evidence alleged for 
other Miracles — 193 

PROPOSITION IL 

CHAPTER I. 

That there is not satisfactory Evidence that Persons, pre- 
tending to be original Witnesses of any other similar 
Miracles, have acted in the same Manner, in Attesta- 
tion of the Accounts which they delivered, and solely 
in consequence of their Belief m the Trutif of these 
Accounts — — 19s 

CHAPTER n. 
Considerations ci some specific Instances — 216 



PART II. 

Of the Auxiliary Evidences of Christianity, 
CHAPTER I. 

Prophecy — 226 

CHAPTER IL 
The Morality of the Gospel — — 232 

CHAPTER III. 
The Candour of the Writers of the New Testament — 272 

CHAPTER IV, 
identity of Christ's Character 283 

CHAPTER V. 

Originality of Christ's Character — — 296 

CHAPTER VI. 
Conformity of the Facts oeeasiondlly mentioned or referred 
to in Scripture, with the State of Things in those Times, 
m represented by Foreign and Independent Accounts 298 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. PAGE 

Undesigned Coincidences — — 332 

CHAPTER VIIL 

Of the History of the Resurrection — — * 335 

CHAPTER IX. 

Of the Propagation of Christianity — — 340 
Section II. — Reflections upon the preceding Account S60 

Section III. — Of the Success of Mahometanism — 368 



PART III. 

A brief Consideration of some Popular Objections. 
CHAPTER I, 

The Discrepancies between the several Gospels - — 3SS 

CHAPTER II. 
Erroneous Opinions imputed to the Apostles — 388 

CHAPTER III. 
The Connection of Christianity with the Jewish History 393 

CHAPTER IV. 
Kejection of Christianity — — ^ 396 

CHAPTER V. 

That the Christian Miracles are not recited^ or appealed to, 
by early Christian Writers themselves, so fully or fre- 
quently as might have been expected — 412 

CHAPTER VI. 
Want of universality in the Knowledge and Reception of 
Christianity, and of greater clearness in the Evidence 422 

CHAPTER VII. 
The supposed Effects of Christianity — — 431 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Conclusion — * — — 449 



PREPARATORY 
CONSIDERATIONS. 



I DEEM it unnecessary to prove that mankind 
stood in need of a revelation, because I have met 
with no serious person who thinks that, even un* 
der the Christian revelation, we have too much 
light, or any degree of assurance which is super- 
fluous. I desire, moreover, that in judging of 
Christianity, it may be remembered, that the ques- 
tion lies between this religion and none ; for if the 
Christian religion be not credible, no one with 
whom we have to do will support the pretensions 
of any other. 

Suppose then the world we live in to have had 
a Creator; — suppose it to appear, from the pre- 
dominant aim and tendency of the provisions and 
contrivances observable in the universe, that the 
Deity, when he formed it, consulted for the hap- 
piness of his sensitive creation ; — suppose the 
disposition which dictated this counsel to con- 
tinue ; — suppose a part of the creation to have 
received faculties from their Maker, by which they 
are capable of rendering a moral obedience to his 
will, and of voluntarily pursuing any end for 
which he has designed them ; — suppose the Crea- 
tor to intend for these;, his rational and account- 



2 



THE EVIDENCES 



able agents, a second state of existence, in which 
their situation will be regulated by their beha- 
viour in the first state, by which supposition (and 
by no other) the objection to the divine govern- 
ment in not putting a difference between the good 
and the bad, and the inconsistency of this con- 
fusion with the care and benevolence discoverable 
in the works of the Deity is done away ; — sup- 
pose it to be of the utmost importance to the 
subjects of this dispensation to know what is 
intended for them ; that is, suppose the knowledge 
of it to be highly conducive to the happiness of 
the species, a purpose which so many provisions 
of Nature are calculated to promote ; — suppose, 
nevertheless, almost the whole race, either by the 
imperfection of their faculties, the misfortune of 
their situation, or by the loss of some prior reve- 
lation, to want this knowledge, and not to be 
likely, without the aid of a new revelation, to at- 
tain it: — under these circumstances, is it improba- 
ble that a revelation should be made? Is it incre- 
dible that God should interpose for such a pur- 
pose ? Suppose him to design for mankind a fu- 
ture state, is it unlikely that he should acquaint 
them with it ? 

Now, in what way can a revelation be made 
but by miracles ? In none which we are able to 
conceive. Consequently, in whatever degree it 
is probable, or not very improbable, that a reve- 
lation should be communicated to mankind at all, 
in the same degree is it probable, or not very im- 
probable, that miracles should be wrought ; — 
therefore, when miracles are related to have been 
wrought in the promulgating of a revelation mani- 
festly wanted, and, if true, of inestimable value,, 
the improbability which arises from the miracul- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



3 



ous nature of the thincps related, is not .s;reater than 
the original improbability that such a revelation 
should be imparted by God. 

I wish it, however, to be correctly understood, 
in what manner, and to what extent, this ari^u- 
ment is alleged. We do not assume the attributes 
of the Deity, or the existence of a future state, in 
order to prove the reality of miracles. That 
reality always must be pioved by evidence. We 
assert only, that in miracles adduced in support 
of revelation, there is not any such antecedent 
improbability as no testimony can surmount ; and 
for the purpose of maintaining this assertion, we 
contend, that the incredibility of mn'acles related 
to have been wrought in attestation of a message 
from God, conveying intelligence of a future state 
of rewards and punishments, and teaching man- 
kind how to prepare themselves for that state, is 
not in itself greater than the event, call it either 
probable or iynprobable, of the two following Pro- 
positions being true ; namely, first, That a future 
state of existence should be destined by God for 
his human creation ; and, secondly, That, being 
so destined, he should acquaint them with it. 
It is not necessary for our purpose that these 
Propositions be capable of proof, or even that, 
by arguments drawn from the lighl of Nature, 
they can be made out to be probable ; it is 
enough that w^e are able to say concerning them, 
That they are not so violently improbable, so con- 
tradictory to what we already believe of the divine 
power and character, that either the Propositions 
themselves, or facts strictly connected with the 
Propositions (and, therefore, no farther improba- 
ble than they are improbable) ought to be rejected 
at first sight, and to be rejected by whatever 

B 2 



4 



THE EVIDENCES 



Strength or complication of evidence they be at- 
tested. 

This is the prejudication we would resist; — 
for to this length does a modem objection to mi- 
racles go, viz. That no human testimony can, in 
any case, render them credible. I think the re- 
flection above stated, That if there be a revelation 
there must be miracles ; and that, under the cir- 
cumstances in which the human species are placed, 
a revelation is not improbable, or not improbable 
in any great degree, — to be a fair answer to the 
whole objection. 

But since it is an objection which stands in the 
very threshold of our argument, and, if admitted, 
is a bar to every proof, and to all future reason- 
ing upon the subject, it may be necessary, before 
we proceed farther, to examine the principle upon 
W'hich it professes to be founded ; which principle 
is concisely this: — That it is contrary to experience 
that a miracle should be true ; but not contrary 
to experience that testimony should be false. 

Now there appears a small ambiguity in the 
term e.vperience, and in the phrases contrary to 
experience^ or contradicting experience, which it 
may be necessary to remove in the fir^t place. — 
Strictly speaking, the narrative of a fact is then 
only contrary to experience when the fact is re- 
lated to have existed at a time and place; at 
which time and place we, being present, did not 
perceive it to exist ; — as if it should be asserted 
thai, in a particular room, and at a particular 
hour of a certain day, a man was raised from the 
dead ; in which room, and at the time specified, 
w^e, being present and looking on, perceived no 
such event to have taken place. Here the asser- 
tion is contrary to experience, properly so called i 



6F CHRISTIANITY. 



5 



md this is a contrariety which no evidence can 
isurmount. It matters nothing, whether the fact 
be of a miraculous nature or not ; but, although 
this be the experience and the contrariety which 
Archbishop Tillotson alleged in his quotation with 
which Mr. Hume opens his Essay, it Is certainly 
not that experience, nor that contrariety, to which 
Mr. Hume himself intended to object ; and, short 
of this, I know no intelligible signification which 
can be affixed to the term contrary/ to €.vpe?icnce, 
but one, viz. That of not having ourselves expe- 
rienced any thing similar to the thing related ; or, 
Such things not being generally experienced by 
others. I say not generally ; for to state, con- 
cerning the fact in question, that no such thing 
was ever experienced, or that universal experience 
is against it, is to assume the subject of the con- 
troversy. 

Now the improbability which arises from the 
want (for this properly is a want, not a contra- 
diction) of experience, is only equal to the pro- 
bability there is, that if the thing were true, we 
should experience things similar to it ; or that such 
things would be generally experienced. Suppose 
it then to be true that miracles were wrought upon 
the first promulgation of Christianity, when no- 
thing but miracles could decide its authority, is it 
^certain that such miracles would be repeated so 
often, and in so many places, as to become ob- 
jects of general experience ? Is it a probability 
approaching to certainty ? Is it a probability of 
any great strength or force ? Is it such as no evi- 
dence can encounter ? And yet this probability is 
the exact converse, and therefore the exact mea- 
sure of the improbability which arises from the 
want of experience, and which Mr. Hume repre- 
sents as invincible by human testimony. 



6 



THE EVIDENCES 



It is not like allegitig a new law of Nature, or a 
new experiment in Natural Philosophy; because, 
when these are related, it is expected that, under 
the same circumstances, the same effect will fol- 
low universally ; and, in proportion as this expec- 
tation is justly entertained, the want of a corres- 
ponding experience negatives the history ; but to 
expect concerning a miracle, that it should suc- 
ceed upon a repetition, is to expect that which 
-would make it cease to be a miracle, which is. 
contrary to its nature as such, and would totally 
destroy the use and purpose for ^vhich it was 
wrought. 

The force of experience, as an objection to 
miracles, is founded in the presumption, either that 
the course of nature is invariable, or that, if it be 
ever vaiied, variations will be frequent and gene- 
ral. Has the necessity of this alternative been de- 
monstrated ? Permit us to call the course of na- 
ture 2 he Agejicy of an Intelligent Being ; and is 
there any good reason for judging this state of the 
case to be probable? Ought we not rather to ex- 
pect, ihat such a Being, upon occasions of peculiar 
importance, may interrupt the order which he had 
appomttd, yet that such occasions should return 
seldom, — xhdt these interruptions, consequently,, 
should be confined to the experience of a few, — 
that the want of it, therefore, in many, should be 
matter neither of surprize nor objection ? 

Eur, as a continuation of the argument from 
experience, it is said, That, when we advance ac- 
counts of miracles, we assign effects without 
causes, or we attribute effects to causes inade- 
quate to the purpose, or lo causes, of the operation 
of which v\e have no experience. Of what causes, 
wc may ask, and of w hat efriects, does the objection 
speak? If it be answered, That, when we ascribe 
the cure of the palsy to a touch, — of bUndness ta 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



7 



the anointing of eyes with clay, — or the raising of 
the dead to a word, we lay ourselves open to this 
imputation. We reply, That we ascribe no such 
effects to such causes. We perceive no virtue or 
energy in these things more than in other things 
of the same kind ; — they are merely signs to con- 
nect the miracle with its end. The effect we 
ascribe simply to the volition of the Deity, of 
whose existence and power, not to say of whose 
presence and agency, we have previous and inde- 
pendent proof We have, therefore, all' we seek 
for in the works of rational agents, a sufficient 
power and an adequate motive. In a word, once 
believe that there is a God, and miracles are not 
incredible. 

Mr, Hume states the case of miracles to be a 
contest of opposite improbabilities ; that is to say, 
a question whether it be more improbable that the 
miracle should be true, or the testimony false ; and 
this I think a fair account of the controversy : but 
herein I remark a want of argumentative justice, 
that, in describing the improbability of miracles, 
he suppresses all those circumstances of extenua- 
tion which result from our knowledge of the ex- 
istence, power, and disposition of the Deity ; his 
concern in the creation, the end answered by the 
miracle, the importance of that end, and its sub- 
serviency to the plan pursued in the works of Na- 
ture. As Mr. Hume has represented the question, 
miracles are alike incredible to him who is pre- 
viously assured of the constant agency of a Divine 
Being, and to him who believes that no such Being 
exists in the universe. They are equally incredi- 
ble, whether related to have been wa'ought upon 
^occasions the most deserving, and for purposes the 
fpost beneficial, or for no assignable end whatever, 



8 



THE EVIDENCES 



or for an end confessedly trifling or pernicious- 
This, surely, cannot be a correct statement In 
adjusting also the other side of the balance, the 
strength and weight of testimony, this author has 
provided an answer to every possible accumu- 
lation of historical proof, by telling us that we 
are not obliged to explain how the story or the 
evidence arose. Now I think that we art obliged, 
— not, perhaps, to show by positive accounts how 
it did, but by a probable hypothesis how it might 
so happen. The existence of the testimony is a 
phenomenon ; — the truth of the fact solves the 
phenomenon. If we reject this solution, we. ought 
to have some other to rest in ; and none, even by 
our adversaries, can be admitted, which is not con- 
sistent with the principles that regulate human 
affairs and human conduct at present, or which 
makes men tkm to have been a different kind of 
beings fi om what they are now. 

But the short consideration which, independ- 
ently of every other, convinces me that there 
is no solid foundation in Mr. Hume's conclusion, 
is the toliowing : — When a theorem is proposed 
to a mathematician, the first thing he does with 
it is to try it upon a simple case ; and if it pro- 
duce a false result, he is sure there must be 
some mistake in the demonstration. Now, to pro- 
ceed in this way with what may be called Mr. 
Humes 'Iheorem. If twelve men, whose probity 
and good sense I had long known, should seri- 
ously and circumstantially relate to me an ac- 
count of a miracle wrought before their eyes, and 
in which it was impossible that they should be 
deceived ; if the governor of the country, hearing 
a rumour of this account, should call these men 
into his presence, and ofier them a short proposal 
either to confess the imposture^ or submit to be 



OF CHRISTIANITYi 0 

tied lip to a gibbet if they should refuse with one 
voice to acknowledge that there existed any false- 
hood or imposture in the case ; if this threat were 
communicated to them separately, yet with no dif- 
feietit effect ; if it was at last executed; if I my- 
self saw them, one after another, consenting to be 
racked, burnt, or strangled rather than give up 
the truth of their account, — still, if Mr. Hume's rule 
be my guide, I am not to believe them. Now, I 
undertake to say, that there exists not a sceptic in 
the world who would not believe them, or who 
would defend such incredulity. 

Instances of spurious miracles, supported by 
strong apparent testimony, undoubtedly demand 
examination. Mr. Hume has endeavoured to for- 
tify his argument by some examples of this kind. 
I hope, in a proper place, to show that none of 
them reach the strength or circumstances of the 
Christian evidence. In these, however, consists 
the weight of his objection ; — in the principle it- 
self, I am persuaded there is none. 



10 



THE EVIEENCES 

PART I. 



OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRIS- 
TIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED 
FROM THE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR OTHER MI- 
RACLES. 

The two Propositions which I shall endeavour 
tp jestablish, are these : — 

L That there is satisfactory evidence that many, 
professing to be original witnesses of the Christian 
miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and 
sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of 
the accounts which they delivered, and solely in 
consequence of their belief of those accounts; and 
that they also submitted, from the same motives, to 
new rules of conduct. 

II. That there is not satisfactory evidence that 
persons professing to be original witnesses of other 
miracles, in their nature as certain as these are, 
have ever acted in the same manner, in attestation 
of the accounts which they deUvered, and properly 
in consequence of their belief of those accounts. 

The first of these Propositions, as it forms the 
argument, will stand at the head of the following 
nine Chapters. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many ^profess- 
ing to he original Witnesses of the Christian 
Miracles^ passed their Lives in Labours^ Dan- 
gers, and Sufferings, voluntarily tinder gone in 
Attestation of the Accounts which thty de- 
livered, and iolely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
viitted^jrom the same Motives, to new Rules of 
Conduct, 

To support ihij Proposition, two points are ne- 
cessary to be made out; — First, That the Founder 
of the institution, his associates, and immediate 
followers, acted tiie part which the proposition im- 
putes to them; — Secondly, That they did so in 
attestation of the miraculous history recorded in 
our Scriptures, and solely in consequence of their 
belief of the truth of this history. 

Before we produce any particular testimony to 
the activity and sufferings which compo&e the sub- 
ject of our first assertion, it will be proper to con- 
sider the degree of probability which the as-sertion 
derives from the nature of the case ; that is, by 
inferences from those parts of the case which, in 
point of fact, are on all hands acknowiedi^ed. 

First, tiien, — The Christian religion exists, and 
therefore, by some means or other, was established. 
Now, it either owes the principle of its establish- 
ment, i. e. its first publication, to the activity of the 
Person who was the founder of the institution, and 
of those vvho were joined with him in the under- 
taking; or we are driven upon the strange suppo- 
sition, that although they might lie by, others 



•THE EVIDENCES 



would take it up ; although they were quiet ancf 
silent, other persons busied themselves in the suc- 
cess and propagation of their story. This is per- 
fectly incredible. To me it appears little less than 
certain, that, if the first announcing of the religion 
by the Founder had not been followed up by the 
zedl and industry of his immediate disciples, the 
attempt must have expired in its birth. Then, as 
to the kind and degree of exertion which was em- 
ployed, and the mode of life to which these per- 
sons submitted, we reasonably suppose it to be like 
that which we observe in all others who voluntarily 
become missionaries of a new faith. Frequeqt, 
earnest, and laborious preaching; constantly con- 
versing with religious persons upon religion : a 
sequestration from the common pleasures, engage- 
ments, and varieties of life ; and an addiction to 
one serious object, compose the habits of such 
men. I do not say that this mpde of life is without 
enjoyment ; but I say that the enjoyment springs 
from sincerity. With a consciousness at the bot- 
tom of hollowness and falsehood, the fatigue and 
restraint would become insupportable. I am apt 
to believe that very few hypocrites engage iu 
these undertakings, or, however, persist in them 
long. Ordinarily speaking, nothing can over- 
come the indolence of mankind, the love which 
is natural to most tempers of cheerful society and 
cheerful scenes ; or the desire, which is common 
to ali^ of personal ease and freedom, but convic- 
tion. 

Secondly, It is also highly probable, from the 
nature of the case, that the propagation of the 
new religion was attended with difficulty and dan- 
ger. As addressed to the Jews, it was a system 
adverse not only to their habitual opinions, but to 
those opinions upon which their hopes, their par- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



tiaiities, their pride, their consolation was founded. 
This people, with or without reason, had worked 
themselves into a persuasion that some signal and 
greatly advantageous change was to be effected 
in the condition of their country, by the agency 
of a long promised Messenger from Heaven*. — - 
The rulers of the Jews, their leading sect, their 
priesthood, had been the authors of this persua- 
sion to the common, people. So that it was not 
merely the conjecture of theoretical divines, or 
the secret expectation of a few recluse devotees, 
but it was become the popular hope and passion ; 
and, like all popular opinions, undoubting and im- 
patient of contradiction. They clung to this hope 
under every misfortune of their country, and with 
liaore tenacity, as their dangers or calamities in- 
creased. To find, therefore, that expectations so 
gratifying were to be worse than disappointed; 
that they were to end in the diffusion of a mild, un- 
ambitious religion, which, instead of victories and 
triumphs, — instead of exalting their nation and 
institution above the rest of the world, ■■ — was to 
advance those whom they despised to an equality 
with themselves in those very points pf.comparison 
in which they most valued their own distinction, 
could be no very pleasing discovery to a Jewish 
mind ; nor could the messengers of such intelli- 
gence expect to be well received or easily credited. 
Tlie doctrine was equally harsh and novel. The 
extending the kingdom of God to those who did 
not conform to the law of Moses, was a notion 



* " Percrebiierat orieiile toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in 
falls, ut eo tempore Jiidasa profecli reriim potirentur/' 

Sueton. Vespasiun, cap. 4 — 8. 

" Pluribus persnasio inerat, antequis sacerdotum literis contmeri, 
eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret onens,profectique Jad^a rerum 
potireutur."— raczY. Hist. lib. 5, cap. 9—13, 



THE EVIDENCtes 



that had never before entered into the thoughts of 
a Jew. 

The character of the new institution was, in 
other respects, also ungrateful to Jewish habits 
and principles. Their own rehgion was in a high 
degree technical. Even the enhghtened Jew placed 
a great deal of stress upon the ceremonies of his 
law, saw in them a great deal of virtue and effi- 
cacy; — the gross and vulgar had scarcely any 
thing else ; — and the hypocritical and ostentatious 
magnified them above measure, as being the in- 
struments of their own reputation and influence. 
The Christian scheme, without formally repealing 
the Levitical Code, lowered its estimation ex- 
tremely. In the place of strictness and zeal in 
performing the observances which that Code pre- 
scribed, or which tradition had added to it, the 
new sect preached up faith, well regulated affec- 
tions, inward purit}, and moral rectitude of dispo- 
sition, as the true ground, on the part of the wor- 
shipper, of merit and acceptance with God. This, 
however rational it may appear, or recommending 
to us at present, did not by any means facilitate the 
plan then. On the contrary, to disparage those 
qualities which the highest characters in the 
country valued themselves most upon, was a sura 
w^ay of making powerful enemies. As if the frus- 
tration of the national hope was not enough, the 
long-esteemed merit of ritual zeal and punctuality 
was to be decried, and that by Jews preaching to 
Jews. 

The ruling party at Jerusalem had just before 
crucified the Founder of the religion. That is a 
fact which will not be disputed. They, there- 
fore, who stood forth to preach the religion, must 
necessarily reproach these rulers with an execu- 
tion, which tliey could not but represent as an 
unjust and cruel murder. This would not render 



OF CHRISTlANITr. 



their office more easy, or their situation more 
safe. 

With regard to the interference of the Roman 
government, which was then established in Judea, 
I should not expect that, despising as it did the 
religion of the country, it would, if left to itself, 
animadvert either with much vigilance or much 
severity upon the schisms and controversies which 
arose within it ; yet there was that in Christianity 
which mif^ht easilv afford a handle of accusation 
with a jealous government. The Christians avowed 
an unqualified obedience to a new Master. They 
avowed also, that he was the person who had been 
foietold to the Jews, under the suspected title of 
King. The spiritual nature of this kingdom, the 
consistency of this obedience with civil subjection, 
were distinctions too refined to be entertained by a 
Roman president, who viewed the business at a 
great distance, or through the medium of very hos- 
tile representations. Our histories accordingly in- 
form us, that this was the turn which the enemies 
of Jesus gave to his character and pretensions, in 
their remonstrances with Pontius Pilate; — and 
Justin Martyr, about a hundred years afterwards^ 
complains that the same mistake prevailed in his 
time: — Ye, having heard that we are waiting for 
a kingdom, suppose, without distinguishing, that 
we mean a human kingdom, when, in truth, we 
speak of that which is with God^';" — and it wa& 
undoubtedly a natural source of calumny and mis- 
construction. 

The preachers therefore of Christianity had to 
contend with prejudice, backed by power. They 
had to come forward to a disappointed people, to a 
priesthood possessing a considerable share of mu- 



* Ap. Imo, p. 16, ed. TbM, 



15 



tHE EVIDENCES 



iiicipal authority, and actuated by strong motives 
of opposition and resentment ; and they had to 
do this under a foreign government, to whose 
favour they had no pretensions, and which wag 
constantly surrounded by their enemies. The 
well-known, because the experienced fate of re- 
formers, whenever the reformation subverts some 
reigning opinion, and does not proceed upon a 
change that has already taken place in the senti- 
ments of a country, will not allow, much less lead 
us to suppose, that the first propagators of Christ- 
ianity at Jerusalem and in Judea, with the diffi- 
culties and the enemies they had to contend with, 
and entirely destitute as they were of force, autho- 
rity, or protection, could execute their mission 
with personal ease and safety. 

Let us next enquire. What might reasonably 
be expected by the preachers of Christianity, when 
they turned themselves to the Heathen pubUc? — 
Now, the first thing that strikes us is, that the 
religion they carried with them was exclusive. 
It denied, without reserve, the truth of every article 
of Heathen mythology, the existence of every ob- 
ject of their worship. It accepted no compromise ; 
it admitted no comprehension. It must prevail, 
if it prevailed at all, by the overthrow of every 
statue, altar, and temple in the world. It will not 
easily be credited, that a design so bold as this was, 
could in any age be attempted to be carried into 
execution with impunity. 

For it ought to be considered, that this was 
not setting forth or magnifying the character and 
worship of some new competitor for a place in 
the Pantheon, whose pretensions might be dis- 
cussed or asserted without questioning the reality 
of any others ; it was pronouncing all other gods 
to be false; and all other worship vain. From 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



17 



the facility with which the Polytheism of ancient 
nations admitted new objecis of worship into the 
number of their acknowledged divinities, or the 
patience with which they might entertain proposals 
of this kind, w^e can argue nothing as to their tole- 
ration of a system, or of the publishers and active 
propagators of a system, which swept away the 
very foundation of the existing establishment. 
The one was nothing more than what it would be 
in popish countries, to add a saint to the calendar; 
the other was to abolish and tread under foot the 
calendar itself 

Secondly, It ought also to be considered, that 
this was not the case of philosophers propounding 
in their books, or in their schools, doubts con- 
cerning the truth of the popular creed, or even 
avowing their disbelief of it. These philosophers 
did not go about from place to place to collect 
proselytes from amongst the common people ; to 
form in the heart of the country societies pro- 
fessing their tenets ; to provide for the order, 
instruction, and permanency of these societies ; 
nor did they enjoin their followers to withdraw 
themselves from the public worship of the temples, 
or refuse a compliance with rites instituted by the 
laws*. These things are what the Christians did, 
and what the philosophers did not ; and in these 
consisted the activity and danger of the enter- 
prise. 

Thirdly^ It ought also to be considered, that 
this danger proceeded not merely from solemn 
acts and public resolutions of the state, but from 
sudden bursts of violence at particular places, from 

* The best of the ancient philosophers, Piiito, Cicero, and Epic- 
tetiis allowed, or rather enjoined men to Vvorship tiie gods of the 
country, and in the established form. See passages to this purpose, 
collected from their works by Dr. Clarke, Nat, and Rev. Rel. p. 
180, cd. V. Except Socrates, they all thnnoht »t wiser to comply 
with the laws than <o contend. 

r 



18 



THE EVIDENCES 



the licence of the populace, the rashness of sonnie 
magistrates, and negUgence of others ; from the 
influence and instigation of interested adversaries, 
and, in general, from the variety and warmth of 
opinion which an errand so novel tind extraordi- 
nary could not fail of exciting. I can conceive 
that the teachers of Christianity might both fear 
and suffer much from these causes, without any 
general persecution being denounced against them 
by imperial authority. Some length of time, I 
should suppose, might pass, before the vast 
machine of the Roman empire would be put in 
motion, or its attention be obtained to religious 
controversy ; but during that time, a great deal 
of ill usage might be endured by a set of friend- 
less unprotected travellers, telling men, wherever 
they came, that the religion of their ancestoi^s, the 
rehgion in which they had been brought up, the 
leligion of the state, and the magistrate, the rites 
which they frequented, the pomp which they 
admired, was throughout a system of folly and de- 
lusion. 

. Nor do I think that the teachers of Christianity 
would find protection in that general disbelief of 
the popular theology, which is supposed to have 
prevailed amongst the intelligent part of the hea- 
then public. It is by no means true that unbe- 
lievers are usually tolerant. They are not disposed 
(and why should they?) to endanger the present 
state of things, by suffering a religion of which 
they believe nothing, to be disturbed by another 
of which they believe as little. They are ready to 
conform themselves to any thing ; and are, often- 
times, amongst the foremost to procure conformity 
from others, by any method which they think 
likely to be efficacious. When was ever a change 
of leligion patronized by infidels? How little, 
notvi ilhstanding the reigning scepticism and the 



OF CHRISTTANITY. 



19 



magnified liberality of that age, the true principles 
of toleration were understood by the wisest men 
amongst them, may be gathered from two eminent 
and uncontestgd examples. The younger Pliny, 
polished as he was by all the literature of that soft 
and elegant period, could gravely pronounce this 
monstrous judgment: — Those who persisted in 
declaring themselves Christians, I ordered to be 
led away to punishment (i. e. to execution) ; for I 
DID NOT DOUBT, wJuitever it was that they 
confessed, that contumacy and inflexible obstinacy 
ought to be punished^ His master, Trajan, a 
mild and accomplished prince, went, nevertheless, 
no further in his sentiments of moderation and 
equity, than what appears in the following re- 
script: The Christians are not to be sought for; 
but if any are brought before you, and convicted, 
they are to be punished." And this direction he 
gives, after it had been reported to him by his 
own president, that, by the most strict examina- 
tion, nothing could be discovered in the principles 
of these persons but a bad and excessive su- 
perstition," accompanied, it seems, w^ith an oath 
or mutual federation, " to allow themselves in no 
crime or immoral conduct whatever." The truth 
is, the ancient heathens considered religion entirely 
as an affair of state, as much under the tuition of 
the magistrate as any other part of the police. 
The religion of that age was not merely allied to 
the state ; it was incorporated into it. Many of 
its offices were administered by the magistrate. 
Its tides of pontiffs, augurs, and flaujens, were 
l)orne by senators, consuls, and generals. With* 
out discussing, therefore, the truth of the theology, 
they resented every affront put upon the establisn* 
ed worship, as a direct opposition to the authority 
of government, 

c 9^ 



THE EVIDENCES 



Add to which, that the religious systems of 
those times, however ill supported by evidence, 
had been long established. The ancient religion- 
of a country has always many votaries; and some- 
times not the fewer, because its origin is hidden in 
remoteness and obscurity. Men have a natural 
veneration for antiquity, especially in matters of 
rehgion. What Tacitus says of the Jewish, was 
more applicable to the heathen establishment : — 
" Hi ritus, quo modo inducti, antiquitate defen- 
duntur." It was also a splendid and sumptuous 
worship. It had its priesthood, its endowments, 
its temples. Statuary, painting, architecture, and 
music, contributed their effect to its ornament and 
magnificence. It abounded in festival shows and 
solemnities, to which the common people are 
greatly addicted, and which were of a nature to 
engage them much more than any thing of that sort 
among us. These things would retain great num- 
bers on its side by the fascination of spectacle and 
pomp, as well as interest many in its preservatian 
by the advantage which they drew from it. " It 
was moreover interwoven," as Mr. Gibbon rightly 
represents it, " with every circumstance of busi- 
ness or pleasure, of public or private life, with all 
the offices and amusements of society." On the 
due celebration also of its rites, the people were 
taught to believe, and did believe, that the pros- 
perity of their country in a great measure de- 
pended. 

I am willing. to accept the account of the matter 
which is given by Mr. Gibbon : " The various 
modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman 
world, were all considered by the people as equally /^ 
true, by the philosophers as equally false, and by 
the magistrates as equally useful :" and I would 
i'sk fi'om which of these three classes of men were 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 'Sl 

tbe Christian missionaries to look for protection 
or impunity? Could they expect it from the 
people, whose acknowledged confidence in the 
public religion" they subverted from its founda- 
tion ? From the philosopher, who, *' considering 
nil religions as equally false," would, of course, 
rank theirs among the number, with the addition 
of regarding them as busy and troublesome zea- 
lots ? Or from the magistrate, who, satisfied with 
the utiliti/ of the subsisting religion, would not 
be likely to countenance a spirit of proselytism 
and innovation ; a system which declared war 
against every other, and which, if it prevailed, 
must end in a total rupture of public opinion; an 
upstart religion, in a word, whijh was not content 
with its own authority, but must disgrace all the 
setded religions of the world ? It was not to be 
imagined that he would endure with patience, that 
the religion of the emperor and of the state should 
be calumniated and borne down by a company of 
superstitious and despicable Jews. 

Lastly, The nature of the case affords a strong 
proof, that the original preachers of Christianity, 
in consequence of their new profession, entered 
upon a new and singular course of life. We may 
be allowed to presume, that the institution which 
they preached to others, they conformed to in their 
own persons ; because this is no more than what 
every teacher of a new religion both does and 
must do, in order to obtain either proselyte or 
hearers. The change which this woivld produce 
was very considerable. It is a change which we 
do not easily estimate, because ourselves, and all 
about us being habituated to the institution from 
Our infancy, it is what we neither experience nor 
observe. After men became Christians, much of 
their time wa? spent in prayer and devotion, iu 



22 



THE EVIDENCES 



religious meetings, in celebrating the eucharist, 
in conferences, in exhortations, in preaching, m 
an affectionate intercourse with one another, and 
correspondence vvith other societies. Perhaps 
their mode of life, in its form and habit, was not 
very unlike the Unites Fratrum, or of modern Me- 
thodists. Think then what it was to become such 
at Corinth, at Ephesus, at Antioch, or even at Je- 
rusalem. How new ! how alien from, all their for- 
mer habits and ideas, and from those of every 
body about them ! What a revolution there must 
have been of opinions and prejudices to bring the 
matter to this ! 

We know uhat the precepts of the religion are, 
how pure, how benevolent, how disinterested a 
conduct they enjoin ; and that this purity and be- 
nevolence is extended to the very thoughts and af- 
fections. We are not, perhaps, at liberty to take 
for granted that the lives of the preachers of 
Christianity were as perfect as their lessons ; but 
we are entitled to contend, that the observable part 
of their behaviour must have agreed in a great 
measure with the duties which they taught. 

There was, therefore (which is all that we 
assert) a course of life pursued by them different 
from that which they before led ; and this is of 
great importance. Men are broughi to any thing 
almost sooner than to change their habit of life, 
especially when the change is either inconvenient, 
or made against the force of natural inchnation, or 
with the loss of accustomed indulgences. It is 
the most difficult of all things to convert men fron^ 
vicious habits to virtuous ones, as every one may 
j dge from what he feels in himself, as well asy 
frofu what he sees in others*," It is almost like 
makiuii; men over again. 



Hartley's Ess. on Man, p. 190, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



23 



Left then to myself, and without any more in- 
formation than a knowledge of the existence of the 
religion, of the general story upon which it is 
founded, and that no act of power, force, and au- 
thority, was concerned in its first success, I should 
conclude, from the very nature and exigency of 
the case, that the Author of the religion during 
his life, and his immediate disciples after his death, 
everted themselves in spreading and publishing the 
institution throughout the country in which it 
began, and into which it was first carried ; that, in 
the prosecution of this purpose, they underwent 
the labours and troubles which we observe the 
propagators of new sects to undergo ; that the at- 
tempt must necessarily have also been in a high 
degree dangerous ; that, from the subject of tiie 
mission, compared with the fixed opinions and pre- 
judices of those to whom the missionaries were to 
address themselves, they could Ijardly fail of en- 
countering strong and frequent opposition ; tliat, 
by the hand of government, as well as from the 
sudden fury and unbridled license of the people, 
they would oftentimes experience injurious and 
cruel treatment; that, at any rate, they must have 
always had so much to fear for their [)ers()nal safety, 
as to have passed their lives in a state of constant 
peril and anxiety; and, lastly, That their mode of 
life and conduct, visibly at least, corresponded 
with the institution which they delivered, and so 
far, was both new, and required continual self- 
denial. 



^4 THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER II. 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many, pro* 
Jessing to be original IVitnesses of the Chris- 
tian Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours^ 
Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily unde?'- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts which they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their 
Belief of theTruth of those Accounts ; and that 
they also submitted, f'om the same Motives^ to 
new Rules of Conduct, 

After thus considering what was likely to 
happen, we are next to inquire how the transaction 
is represented in the several accounts that have 
come dov\n to us ; and this inquiry is properly pre- 
ceded by the other, for as much as the reception 
of these accounts may depend in part upon the 
credibility of what they contain. 

The obscure and distant view of Christianity 
which some of the heathen writers of that age had 
gained, and which a few passages in their remain- 
ing works incidentally discover to us, offers itself 
to our notice in the first place ; because, so far as 
this evidence goes, it is the concession of adversa- 
ries ; the source from which ic is drawn is unsus- 
pected. Under this head, a quotation from Ta- 
citus, well known to every scholar, must be in- 
serted, as deserving particular attention. Thqy 
reader will bear in mind that this passage was 
written about seventy years after Christ's death, 
and that it relates to transactions which took place 
about thirty years after that event. Speakmg of 
the fire which happened at Rome in the time of 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



Nero, and of the suspicions which were entertain- 
ed that the emperor himself was concerned in 
causing it, the historian proceeds in his narrative 
and observations thus : — 

But neither these exertions, nor his largesses 
to the people, nor his ofJerings to the gods, did 
away the infamous imputation under which Nero 
lay, of having ordered the city to be set on 
lire. To put an end, therefore, to this report, 
he laid the guilt, and inflicied the most cruel 
punishments, uj)on a set of people who were held 
in abhorrence for their crimes, and called by the 
vulgar Christians, The founder of that name 
was Christ, who suffered death in the reign of 
Tiberius, under his procurator Pontius Pilate. 
The pernicious superstition, thus checked for a 
while, broke out agam ; and spread not only 
over Judea, where the evil originated, but 
through Rome also, whither every thing bad 
upon earth finds its way, and is practised. Some 
who confessed their sect, were first seized, and 
afterwards by their information, a vast multitude 
were apprehended, who were convicted, not so 
much of the crime of burning Rome, as of ha- 
tred to mankind. Their sufferings at their exe- 
cution were aggravated by insult and mockery; 
for, some were disguised in the skins of wild 
beasts, and worried to death by dogs; — some 
were crucified ; — and others were wrapped in 
pitched shirts*, and set on fire when the day 
closed, that they might serve as lights to illumi- 
nate the night. Nero lent his own gardens for 
these executions, and exhibited at the same time 



* This is rather a paraphrase, but is justified by ^vhat the Scho- 
liast upon Juvenal says ; " Nero maleficos homines tceda et papyr© 
est oera snpervestiebat, et sic ad iguem admoveri jubebat." Lard> 
Jewiiih and Heath. Test. vol. i. p. 350. 



^6 



^HE EVIDENCES 



a inock Circensian entertainment ; being a specta- 
tor of the whole, in the dress of a charioteer; 
sometimes mingling with the crowd on foot, and 
sometimes viewing the spectacles from his car. 
This conduct made the sufferers pitied ; and 
though they were criminals, and deserving the 
severest punishment, yet they were considered as 
sacrificed, not so much out of a re^^^ard to the 
public good, as to gratify the cruelty of one 
man." 

Our concern with this passage at present is 
only so far as it affords a presumption m support 
of the proposition which we maintain, concerning 
the activity and sufferings of the first teachers of 
Christianity. Now, considered in this view, it 
proves three things : 1st, That the Founder of the 
institution was put to death ; 2dly, That in the 
same countiy in which he was put to death, the 
religion, after a short check, broke out again and 
spread ; 3dly, That it so spread, as that, within 
thirty-four years from the Authors death, a very 
great number of Christians (ingens eoriim multi^ 
tiido ) were found at Rome. From which fact, the 
two following inferences may be fairly drawn : 
first, That, if, in the space of thirty-four years 
from its commencement, the religion had spread 
throughout Judea, had extended itself to Rome, 
and there had numbered a great multitude of con- 
verts, the original teachers and missionaries of the 
institution could not have been idle: secondly, That 
when the Author of the undertaking was put to 
death as a malefactor for his attempt, the en- 
deavours of his followers, to establish his religion 
in the same country, amongst the same people, 
and in the same age, could not but be attended 
witli danger. 

Suetonius, a writer contemporary with Tacitus, 
fiebcribing the transactions of the same reign, uses 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



27 



these words : " AfFecti suppliciis Christiani, genus 
hominum siiperstitionis novas at malefic**." The 
Christians, a set of men of a new and mischievous 
(or magical) superstition, were punished. 

Since it is not mentioned here that the burning 
of the city was the pretence of the punishment of 
the Christians, or that they were the Christians of 
JRome who alone suffered, it is probable that Sueto- 
nius refers to some more general persecution than 
the short and occasional one which Tacitus de- 
scribes. 

Juvenal, a writer of the same age with the two 
former,- and intending, as it should seem, to com- 
memorate the cruelties exercised under Nero's 
government, has the following lines f : 

" Pone Tigelimum, tae a lucebis in ilia. 
Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo giittcre fumant, 
Et latum media sulciim deducit % arena." 

" Describe Tigellinus (a creature of Nero) and 
you shall suffer the same punishment with those 
who stand burning in their own flame and smoke, 
their head being held up by a stake fixed to tlieir. 
chin, till they make a long stream of blood and 
melted sulphur on the ground." 

If this passage were considered by itself, the 
subject of the allusion would be doubtful; but, 
when connected with the testimony of Suetonius, 
as to the actual punishment of the Christians by 
Nero, and witii the account given by Tacitus of the 
species of punishment which they were made to 
undergo, I think it sutiici^Mitly probable that these 
were the executions to wiiich the poet refers. 

These things, as has already been observed, took 



* Suet. Nero, cap. 16. 
+ Sat. i, ver. 155. % Forsan " deducis,*^ 



' THE EVIDENCES 

place within thirty-one years after Christ's death, 
that is, according to the course of nature, in the 
life-time, probably, of some of the apostles, and 
certainly in the life-time of those who were con- 
verted by the apostles, or who were converted in 
their time. If then the Founder of the religion 
was put to death in the execution of his design ; if 
the first race of converts to the religion, many of 
them, suffered the greatest extremities for their 
profession, — it is hardly credible that those who 
came hetxveen the two, who were companions of 
the Author of the institution during his life, and 
the teachers and propagators of the institution after 
his death, could go about their undertaking with 
ease and safety. 

The testimony of the younger Pliny belongs to 
a later period ; for although he was contemporary 
with Tacitus and Suetonius, yet his account does 
not, like theirs, go back to the transactions of 
Nero's reign, but is confined to the affairs of his 
own time. His celebrated letter to Trajan was 
written about seventy years after Christ's death ; 
and the information to be drawn from it, so far as 
is connected with our argument, relates princi- 
pally to two points : first. To the number of Christ- 
ians in Bithynia and Pontus, which was so consi- 
derable as to induce the governor of these pro- 
vinces to speak of them in the following terms : 
*' Multi, omnis, cetatis, utriusque, sexus etiam ; — 
neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam et 
agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est." 

There are many of every age and of both sexes ; — 
nor has the contagion of this superstition seized 
cities only, but smaller towns also, and the open 
country." Great exertions must have been used 
by the preachers of Christianity to produce this 
state of things withhi this time. Secondly, To a 
point w^hich has been already noticed; and whicU 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



29 



I think of importance to be observed, namely, the 
sufferings to which Christians were exposed, with- 
out any public persecution being denounced against 
them by sovereign authority. For, from Pliny s 
doubt how he was to act, his silence concerning 
any subsisting law upon the subject, his requesting 
the emperors rescript, and the emperor, agree- 
ably to his request, propounding a rule for his 
direction, without reference to any prior rule, it 
may be inferred that there was, at that time, no 
public edict against the Christians in force. Yet, 
from this same epistle of Pliny, it appears that 
accusations, trials, and examinations, were, and 
had been, going on against them in the provinces 
over which he presided ; that schedules were de- 
livered by anonymous informers, containing the 
names of persons who were suspected of holding 
or of favouring the religion ; that, in consequence 
of these informations, many had been appre- 
hended, of whom some boldly avowed their pro- 
fession, and died in the cause ; others denied that 
they were Christians ; others, acknowledging that 
they had once been Christians, declared that they 
had long ceased to be such." All which demon- 
strates, that the profession of Christianity was at 
that time (in that country at least) attended with 
fear and danger; and yet this took place without 
any edict from the Roman sovereign commanding 
or authorising the persecution of Christians. This 
observation is farther confirmed by a rescript of 
Adrian to Minucius Fundanus, the pro-consul of 
Asia* : from which rescript it appears that the 
custom of the people of Asia was to proceed 
against the Christians with tumult and uproar. 
This disorderly practice, I say, is recognised in the 



* I.aid. Heath. Test. v. ii, p. 110, 



30 



THE EVIDENCES 



edict, because the emperor enjoins, that, for the 
future, if the Christians were guilty, they should 
be legally brought to trial, and not be pursued by 
importunity and clamour. 

Manial wrote a few years before the younger 
Pliny ; and, as his manner was, made the suffer- 
in,2;s of the Christians the subject of his ridicule*. 
Nothing, however, could show the notoriety of the 
fact with more certainty than this does. Martial's 
testimony, as well indeed as Pliny's, goes also to 
another point, viz. That the deaths of these men 
were martyrdoms in the strictest sense ; that is to 
say, were so voluntary, that it was in their power, 
at the time of pronouncing the sentence, to have 
averted the execution, by consenting to join in 
heathen sacrifices. 

The constancy, and, by consequence, the suffer- 
ings of the Christians of this period, is also referred 
to by Epicteius, who imputes their intrepidity to 
madness, or to a kind of fashion or habit; and 
about fifty }ears afterwards, by Marcus Aurelius, 
who ascribes it to obstinacy. " Is it possible 
(Epictetus asks) that a man may arrive at this 
temper, and become indifferent to those things, 
from madness or from habit, as the Galileans '\?''' 
" Let this preparation of the mind (to die) arise 
from its own judgment, and not from obstinacy, 
like the Christians t." 



* 111 niatiitiiia niipcr spectatus arena 

Mucins, impo-suit qui sua membra focis, 

Si patieiis fortisque tibi duni.sque videtur, 
Abderitanae pectera plebis iiabes ; 

;Nam cum dicalur, tunica praiseiitc molesia, 
L ie * maiium : plus est dicere, Nou tacio. 

• Foi san " thure inanujn." 



+ Epic. 1. iv. c. 7. 



I Maro. Aur. Med. I. xi. c. 3, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. ^1 



CHAPTER HI. 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many, prch 
Jessing to be original /Fitnesses of the Chris- 
tian Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours^ 
Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts which they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
mitted, from the same Motives, to new Rules of 
Conduct, 

the primitive condition of Christianity, a 
distant only and general view can be acquired 
from heathen writers. It is in our own books that 
the detail and interior of the transactions must be 
sought for; and this is nothing ditferent from what 
might be expected. Who would write a history of 
Christianity but a Christian? Who was likely to 
record the travels, sufferings, labours, or sjuccesses 
of the apostles but one of their own number, or of 
their followers ? Now these books come up in their 
accounts to the full extent of the proposition which 
we maintain. We have four histories of Jesus 
Christ. We have a history taking up the narrative 
from his death, and carrying on an account of the 
propagation of the religion, and of some of the most 
eminent persons engaged in it, for a space of nearly 
thirty years. W"e have what some may think still 
more original, a collection of letters, written by 
certain principal agents in the business, upon the 
business, and in the midst of their concern and con- 
nection with it ; and we have these writings sever- 
ally attesting the point wiiich we contend for, viz. 



52 THE EVIDENCES 

the sufferings of the witnesses of the history, and 
attesting it in every variety of form in M^hich it 
can be conceived to appear ; directly and indi- 
rectly, expressly and incidentally ; by assertion, re- 
cital, and allusion ; by narratives of facts, and by 
arguments and discourses built upon these facts, 
either referring to them, or necessarily presuppos- 
ing them. 

I remark this variety, because in examining an- 
cient records, or indeed any species of testimony, 
it is, in my opinion, of the greatest importance to 
attend to the information or grounds of argument 
which are casually and undesignedly disclosed ; 
forasmucl) as this species of proof is, of all others, 
the least liable to be corrupted by fraud or misre- 
presentation. 

I may be allowed, therefore, in the inquiry 
which is now before us, to suggest, some conclu- 
sions of this sort, as preparatory to more direct 
testimony. 

i. Our l)Ooks relate, that Jesus Christ, the 
founder of the religion, was, in consequence of his 
undertaking, put to death as a malefactor, at Je- 
rusalem> This point at least will be granted, be- 
cause it is no more than what Tacitus has recorded. 
They then proceed to tell us that the religion was, 
notwithstanding, set forth at triis same city of Je- 
rusalem, propagated from thence throughout Ju- 
dea, and afterwards preached in other parts of 
the Roman empire. These points also are fuily 
confirmed by Tacitus, who informs us that the re- 
ligion, after a short check, broke out again in that 
country where it took its rise ; that it not only 
spread throughout Judea, but had reached Rome ; 
and that it had there great multitudes of converts : 
and all this within thirty years after its commence- 
ment. Now these facts afford a strong inference 
in behalf of the proposition which we maintain. — 



OF CHRISTIANITr. 



S3 



What could the disciples of Christ expect for them- 
selves when they saw their Master put to death? 
Could they hope to escape the dangers in which he 
had perished ? ^' If they have persecuted me, they 
will also persecute you," was the warniniT of common 
sense. With this example before their eyes, they 
could not be without a full sense of the peril of 
their future enterprise. 

Secondly, All the histories agree in represent- 
ing Christ as foretelling the persecution of his 
followers : — 

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, 
and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all na- 
tions for my name's sake 

" When affliction or persecution ariseth for the 
words sake, immediately they are offended f ." 
• They shall lay hands on you, and persecute 
you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into 
prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for 
my name's sake : — and ye shall be betrayed both 
by parents and brethren, and kinsfolks and friends, 
and some of you shall they cause to be put to 
death J." 

" Tiie time cometh, that he that killeth you, 
will think that he doth God service; and these 
things will they do unto you, because they have not 
iinown the Father nor me. But these thing's have 
I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may 
remember that I told you of them 

I am not entitled to argue from these passages 
tbaf^Christ actually did foretell these events, and 
that they did accordingly come to pass, because 
that would be at once to assume the truth of the 



* Matt. xxiv. 9. 

+ Mark iv. 17. See also x. 29. 

X Luke xxi. 12 — 16. See also xi. 49. 

§ Jolm xvi, 4. Seo also xv. 20. ; xvi, 33. 



34 



THE EVIDENCES 



religion ; but I am entitled to contend, that one 
side or other of the following disjunction is true : 
either that the Evangelists have delivered what 
Christ really spoke, and that the event corres- 
ponded with the prediction ; or that they put the 
prediction into Christ's mouth, because at the 
time of w^riting the history, the event had turned 
out so to be ; for the only two remaining supposi- 
tions appear in the highest degree incredible; 
which are, either that Christ filled the minds of 
his followers with fears and apprehendons, withr 
out any reason or authority for what he said, and 
contrary to the truth of the case ; or that, although 
Christ had never foretold any such thing, and the 
event would have contradicted him if he had, — yet 
historians, who lived m the age when the event was 
known, falsely as well as officiously ascribed these 
words to him. 

Thirdly, These books abound with exhortations 
to patience, and with topics of comfort under dis- 
tress. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? 
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or fa- 
mine^ or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in 
all these things we are more than conquerors 
through him that loved us*'." ' 

^' We are troubled on every side, yet not dis- 
tressed ; we are perplexed, but not in despair ; 
persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast dow n, but not 
destrayed ; always bearing about in the body the 
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus 
might be - made manifest in our body, know ing 
that heS'vhich raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise 
lis up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. 
For which cause we faint not; but though our out- 



* jlom. yiii, 35, 37, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



35 



ward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed 
day by day. For onr light affliction, which is bat 
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glor^^ 

" Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have 
spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of 
suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, u e 
count them happy which endure. Ye have heaid 
of the patience of Job, and have seen the end oS 
the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of 
tender mercy 

" Call to remembrance the former days, in 
which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a 
great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were niride 
a gazing scock both by reproaches and afflictions, 
and pardy whilst ye became companions of thi-un 
that were so used ; for ye had compassion of me 
in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of yoin* 
goods, knowing in yourselv^es that you have in 
Heaven a better and an enduring su')stance. Cast 
not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath 
great recom pence of reward ; for ye have need of 
patience, that after you have done the will of God, 
ye might receive the promise J." 

" So that we ourselves glory in you in the 
churches of God, for your patience and faith in 
all your persecutions aud tribulations that ye en- 
dure ; which is a manifest token of the righteous 
judgment of God, that ye may be counted Worthy 
of the kingdom for which ye also suffer 

" We rejoice in hope of the glory of God ; and 
not only so, but we glory in tribulations also ; know- 



* 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17. 
+ J ames v. 10, 11. 
X Heb. X. 32—36. 
§ 2 Tkess. i. 4, 5. 



56 



TilE EVIDEN'CF.S 



ing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience 
experience, and experience hope*." 

" Beloved, think it not strange concerning the 
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange 
thing happened to you ; but rejoice, inasmuch as 
ye are partakers of Christ's sufiierings. Wherefore, 
let them that snffisr according to the will of God, 
commit the keeping of their souls to him in well- 
doing, as unto a faithful Creator t*" 

\V hat would all these texts mean, if there was 
nothing in the circumstances of the times which 
required patience, — which called for the exercise 
of constancy and resolution ? Or will it be pre- 
tended that these exhortations (which, let it be ob- 
served, come not from one author, but from many) 
w ere put in, merely to induce a belief in after-ages 
that the first Chrisuans were exposed to dangers 
which they were not exposed to, or underwent 
sufferings w^hich they did not undergo ? If these 
Looks belong to the age to w hich they lay claim, 
and in which age, whether genuine or spurious, 
they certainly did appear, this supposition cannot 
be maintained for a moment ; because I think it 
impossible to believe, that passages w Ijich must be 
deemed not only unintelligible but false by the 
persons into whose hands the books upon their 
publication were to come, should nevertheless be 
mserted, for the purpose of producing an eflect 
upon remote generations. In forgeries which do 
not appear till many ages after that to which they 
pretend to belong, it is possible that some con- 
■uivance of that sort may take place ; but in no 
jGthers can it be attempted. 



* Ftm \, '3, 4. 



t 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13, 19. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



37 



CHAPTER IV. 

There is sathfactorij Evidence that wamj, pro- 
Jessing to he original JViinesses of the Chris- 
tian Miracles^ passed their Lives in Labours, 
Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts ichich they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
mitted, from the same Motives, to nezv links vf 
Conduct, 

The account of the treatment of tlie religion, 
and of the exertions of its first preachers, as 
stated in our Scriptures (not in a professed hist ry 
of persecutions, or in the connected manner in 
which I am about to recite it, bur dispcrsedly and 
occasionally, in the course of a nnxed L^eneral iiis- 
tory, which circumstance alone neg itivcs the sii[)- 
position of any fraudulent design) is the follow ing: 
That the Founder of Christianity, from the coin- 
mencement of his ministry to the time of his violent 
death, employed himself M'holly in pul)lishing the 
institution in Judea and Galilee ; tnat, in order to 
as>sist liim in his purpose, he made choice out of the 
number of liis followers of twelve persons, who 
might accompany him as he travelled from place to 
place; that, except a short absence upon a journey^ 
in which he sent them, two by two, to announce his 
mission, and one of a few days, v. hen they went 
before him to Jerusalem, these persons were stat- 
edly and constantly attending upon him; that 
they were with him at Jerusalem when he was 
apprehended and put to death ; and that they 



38 



THE EVIDENCES 



were commissioned by him, when his own ministry 
V. as coni ] ded, to pubUsh his Gospel, and collect 
disciples to it Irom all countries in the world." 
Itie account then proceeds to st'ite, That, a few 
d-r.ys aite: his departure, these persons, wiih some 
Oi iiis lelations, and some who h d regulirly fre- 
-q-^eiiied their society, assembled at Jerusalem ; 
tlia'; con.^iderino; the office of preaching the religion 
as now devolved upon them, and one of ttieir num- 
ber [lavmg deserted the cause, and repenting of 
his perfiay, havini^ destroyed himseh, they pro- 
ceeded to elect ai] other into his place, and that 
they were caref jl to make then^ election out of the 
number of those who had accompanied their 
Master fro. ij ihe first to the last, in order, as they 
alleged, ihat he migijt be a witness, tOi^ether with 
theuiseiv^s, oi' the principal facts which they were 
abont to produce and relate concerning him*; 
that tiiey began rheir work at Jerusalem, by pub- 
licly asserting ttiat this Jesus, whom the rulers and 
inhabitants of that place had so lately crucified, 
was, in truth, the person in whom all their prophe- 
cies and lono; expectations .er.ninated ; that he had 
be< n sent amourist them by God ; and that he was 
appointed by God the tuture judge of the human 
species ; that all who were solicitous to secure to 
themselves happiness after death, ought to receive 
bim as such, and to make profession of their be- 
lief, b} being baptized in his name t." The his- 
tory goes on to relate, " That considerable num- 
bers accepted this proposal, and that they who did 
so, formed amon-rst themselves a strict union and 
society J ; that, the attention of the Jewish govern- 
ment being soon drawn upon them, two of the 



* Acls i. 21, 22. 
f Acts X. 47, &c. I Chap. v. 41. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 'S9 

"'l^rincipal persons of the twelve, and who also had 
lived most intimately and constantiy with the 
Founder of the relij^ion, were seized as thev were 
discoursing to the people in the temple ; that, after 
being kept all night in prison, they were brought 
the next day before an assembly, composed of the 
chief persons of the Jewish magistracy and priest- 
hood ; that this assembly, after some consultation, 
found nothing, at that time, better to be done to- 
wards suppressing the growth of the sect, than to 
threaten their prisoners with punishment if they 
persisted; that these men, after expressing in de- 
cent but firm language, the obligation under which 
they considered themselves to be, to declare what 
they knew, " to speak the things which they had 
seen and heard," returned from the council, and 
reported what had passed to their companions; 
tnat this report, whilst it apprized them of the 
danger of their situation and undertaking, had no 
other effect upon their conduct than to produce 
in them a general resolution to persevere, and an 
earnest prayer to God to furnish them with assist- 
ance, and to inspire them with fortitude propor- 
tioned to the increasing exigency of the service^." 
A very short time after this, we read " that all tne 
twelve apostles were seized and cast into prison f ; 
that being brought a second time before the Jewish 
Sanhedrim, they were upbraided with their dis- 
obedience to the injunction which had been laid 
upon them, and beaten for their contumacy ; that, 
being charged once more to desist, they were suf- 
fered to depart ; that, however, they neither quitted 
Jerusalem nor ceased from preaching, both daily 
in the temple, and from house to house:};; and 
that the twelve considered themselves as so entirely 



* Acts iv. t Chap. v. 13. J Chap. v. 



40 



THE EVIDENCES 



and exclusively devoted to this office, tbat"they now 
transferred what may be called tiie temporal affairs 
of the society to other hands 

Hitherto the preachers of the new religion seem 
to have had the common people on their side ; 
wiiich is assigned as the reason why the Jewish 
rulers did not at this time think it prudent to pro- 
ceed to greater extremities. It was not long, how- 
ever, l;eiore the enemies of the institution found 
niraiis to represent it to the people as tending to 
subvert their law, degrade their lawgiver, and 
die honour their temple f. And these insinuations 
vere dispersed with so m.uch success, as to induce 
the people to join with their su[)eriors in the ston- 
ing; of a very active member of the new commu- 
miy. 

Tiie death of this man was the signal of a ge- 
neral persecution, the activity of which may be 
judged of from one anecdote of the tiuie : As 



* I do not know iJiat it l\as ever been insinuated that the Cliris- 
tian mission, in Ihe hands of the apostles, was a sehemc for making 
a fortniie, or for getting- money. Bnt it may nevertheless be fit to 
remark upon this passage oi" their history, how perfectly free they 
appear to have been trom any pecuniary or interested views what- 
ever. 'J'lie most temptmg- opportunity wliich occurred of making a 
gain of tiieir converts was by tlie custody and management ot the 
public iunds, when some of the richer members intendhig to contri- 
bute tneir fortunes to the common support of the society, soid their 
possessions, and laid down the prices at the apostles' feet. Yet, so 
insensible, or undesirous, were they of the advantage which that 
confidejice afforded, that we find, they very soon disposed of the 
trust, by putting it into the hands, not of nominees of their own, 
but of ste'.vards iornialJy elected for the purpose by the society at 
large. 

We may a id also, t'lat this excess of generosity, which cast pri- 
vate pioperty mio iiie public stock, was so far from being required 
by t ie Jipostl fi, or imposed as a law of Christianity, that Peter re- 
minds Ananias t'.at ho liad been guilty in his bei^aviour, of an offi- 
cious and vohmlary pseVajricalion ; " lor whilst," says he, " thy 
e::tate renuiiricu unsold, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, 
was it liot in thine own power 

f Acts vi. 10. 



OF CHRISTIANITY* 



41 



for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering 
into every house, and haling men and women, 
committed them to prison*." This persecution 
raged at Jerusalem with so much fury, as to drive t 
most of the new converts out of the place, except 
the twelve apostles. The converts, thus scattered 
abroad^ preached the religion wherever they came; 
and their preaching was, in elFect, the preaching of 
the twelve ; for it was so far carried on in concert 
and correspondence with them, that when they 
heard of the success of their emissaries in a parti- 
cular country, they sent two of their number to the 
place, to complete and confirm the mission. 

An event now took place, of great importance in 
the future histor-y of the religion. The pei'secu- 
tion :[: which had begun at Jerusalem followed the 
Christians to other cities, in which the authority of 
the Jewish Sanhedrim over those of their own na- 
tion was allowed to be exercised. A young man 
who had signalized himself by his hostility to the 
profession, and had procured a coujinission from 
the council at Jerusalem to seize any converted 
Jews whom he might frnd at Damascus, suddenly 
became a proselyte to the religion which he was 
going about to extirpate. The new convert not 
only shared, upon this extraordinary change, the 
fate of his companions, but brought upon himself a 
double measure of enmity from the party which 
he left. The Jews at Damascus, upon his return 
to that city, watched the gates night and day with 
so much diligence, that he escaped fi om their hands 
only by being let down in a basket by the wall. 



* 7\clsviii. 3. 

+ Acts 1. " And they were all scattered abroad : but the 
term w/Z is m^t, 1 think^to be taken strictly, or as denoting mure 
\\iH.n \\\o generality ; in like manner as in Acts ix. 35 : " And 
that d\\ elt at Lydda aad Saron saw liim, and turned Iq the Lord.'^ 

X AcT« ix. 



42 



THE EVIDENCES 



Nor did he find liimself in greater safety at Je- 
rusalem, whither he immediately repaired. At- 
tempts were there also soon set on foot to destroy 
him ; from the danger of which he was preserved 
by being sent away to Cilicia, his native country. 

For some reason not mentioned, perhaps not 
known, but probably connected with the civil his- 
tory of the Jews, or with some danger* which en- 
grossed the public attention, an intermission about 
this time took place in the sufferings of the Chris- 
tians. This happened, at the most only seven or 
eight, perhaps only three or four years after Christ's 
death : — within which period, and notwithstand- 
ing that the late persecution occupied part af it, 
churches, or societies of believers, had been form- 
ed in all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; for we 
read that the churches in these con tries had 
-noxv rest^ and were edified; and, walking in the 
fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy 
Ghost, were multiplied f ." The original preachers 
of the relidon did not remit their labours or acti- 
vity during this season of quietness ; for we find 
one, and he a very principal person among them, 
passing throughout all quarters. We find also 
those who had been before expelled from Jerusa- 
lem by tiie persecution which raged there, travelling 
as far as Piioenice, Cyprus, and Antioch j ; and, 
lastly, we find Jerusalem again the centre of the 
mission, the place whither the preachers returned 
from their several excursions ; where they report- 
ed the conduct and effects of their ministry ; where 



* Dr. Lardner (in which he is followed also by Dr. Benson) as- 
cribes this cessation of the persecution of the Christians to the at- 
tempt of CaligTila to set up his own statue in the temple of Jerusa- 
len-, and to the consternation thereby excited in the minds of the 
Jewish people : which consternatiou for a season suspended every 
other contcist. 

t -A^cts ix. 31. + Chap. xi. 19. 



OP CHUISTIANITT. 



43 



questions of public concern were canvassed and 
settled ; from whence directions were sought, arid 
teachers sent forth. 

The time of this tranquiUity did not, however, 
continue long. Herod Agrippa, who had lately 
acceded to the government of Judra, stretched 
forth his hand to vex certain of the church*." He 
began his cruelty by Ijeheading one of the twelve 
original ap(iStles, a kinsman and constant compa- 
nion of the Founder of the religion. Perceiving 
that this execution gratified the Jews, he pro- 
ceeded to seize, in order to put to death, another 
ot the number ; — - and him, like the former, asso- 
ciated with Christ during his life, and eminently 
active in the service since his dtatb. This man 
was, however, delivered from piiton, as the account 
states f, miraculously, and luade his escape from 
Jerusalem. 

These things are related, not in the general 
terms under which, in giving the outlines of the 
history we have here mentioned them, but with the 
utmost particularity of names, persons, place?, and 
circumstances ; and, what is deserving of notice, 
without the smallest discoverable projvensity in the 
historian to magnify the fortitude, or exaggerate 
the sufferings of his party. AViien they tied for 
their lives, he tells us. When the churches had 
rest, he remarks it. When the people took their 
part, he does not leave it without notice. When 
the apostles were carried a second time before the 
Sanhedrim, he is careful to observe that thev were 
brought without violence. When milder counsels 
were suggchted, he gives us the author of the ad- 
vice, a id the speech which contained it. When, 
in consequence of this advice, the rulers contented 



* Acts xii. 1. 



t Chap. xii. 3— 17. 



44 



THE EVIDENCES 



themselves with threatening the apostles, and com- 
manding them to be beaten with stripes, without 
urging at that time the persecution farther, the 
historian candidly and distinctly records their for- 
bearance. When, therefore, in other instances, he 
states heavier persecutions, or actual martyrdoms, 
it is reasonable to believe that he states them be- 
cause they were true, and not from any wish to 
aggravate, in his account, the sufferings which 
Christians sustained, or to extol, more than it de- 
served, tlieir patience under them. 

Our history now pursues a narrower path. — 
Leavini^ the rest of the apostles, and the original 
associates of Christ, engaged in the propagation of 
the new faith (and who there is not the least reason 
to believe abated in their diligence or courage) 
the narrative proceeds with the separate memoirs 
of that eminent teacher, whose extraordinary and 
sudden conversion to the religion, and correspond- 
ing change of conduct, had before been circum- 
stantially described. This person, in conjunction 
with another, who appeared among the earlier 
members of the society at Jerusalem, and amongst 
the immediate adherents* of the tv»elve apostles, 
set out from Antioch upon the express business of 
carrying the new religion through the various pro- 
vinces of the Lesser Asiaf. During this expe- 
dition, we find that, in almost every place to which 
they came their persons were insulted, and their 
lives endangered. After being expelled from An- 
tioch in Pisidia, they repaired to IconiumJ. At 
Jconium, an attempt was made to stone them; at 
Lystra, whither they fied from Iconium, one of 
them actually was stoned and drawn out of the 
city for dead||. These two men, though not them- 



* Acts iv 36. + Chap. xiii. 2. X Chap. xiii. 51» 

11 Chap. xiv. 19. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



45 



lelves original apostles, were acting in connexion 
and conjunction with the original aposiles ; for, 
after the compleiion of their journey, being sent 
upon a particular commission to Jerusalem, they 
tiiere related to the apostles* and elders the events 
and success of their ministry, and were, in return, 
recommended by them to the churches, "as men 
who had hazarded their lives in the cause." 

The treatment wliich they had experienced in 
the firit progress, did not deter them from prepar- 
ing for a second. Upon a dispute, however, aris- 
ing between them, but not connected with the 
common subject of their labom^s, they acted as wise 
and sincere men would act; they did not retire in 
disgust from the service in which they were en- 
gaged, but, each devoting his endeavours to the 
advancement of tlie religion, they parted from one 
another, and set forwards upon separate routes. 
The history goes along with one of them; and the 
second enterprise to him was attended with the 
same dangers and persecutions as both had met 
with in the first. The apostle's travels hitherto had 
been confined to Asia. He now crosses, for the 
first time, the iEgean Sea, and carries with him, 
amongst others, the person whose accounts supply 
the inform.ation we are stating f. The first place 
in Gieece at which he appears to have stopped was 
Philippi, in Macedonia. Here himself and one of 
his companions were cruelly whipped, cast into 
prison, and kept there under the most rigorous 
custody, being thrust, whilst yet smarting with 
their wounds, into the inner dungeon, and their 
feet made fast in the stocks J. Notwithstanding 
this unequivocal specimen of the usage which they 
had to look for in that country, they went forward 



* Acts xy. 12— 2G. t Chap. xvi. 11. + Ver, 23, 24, 33. 



45 



THE EVIDENCES 



in the execution of their errand. After passing 
through Ainphipolis and Apollonia, tliey came to 
Thessalonica ; in which city, the hoase in which 
they lodged vvas assailed by a party of their ene- 
mies, in order to bring them out to the populace ; 
and when, fortunately for their preservation, they 
were not found at home, the master of the house 
was dragged before the magistrate for admitting 
them within hb doors*. Their reception at the 
next city was something better : but neither had 
they continued long before their turbulent adver- 
saries, the Jews, excited against them such com- 
motions amongst the inhabitants, as obliged the 
apostle to make his escape, by a private journey, 
to Athens f. The extremity of the progress was 
Corinth. His abode in this city, for some time 
seems to have been without molestation At 
length, however, the Jews found means to stir up 
an insurrection against him, and to bnng him be- 
fore the tribunal of the Roman president J. It 
was to the contempt which that magistrate enter- 
tained for the Jews and their controversies, of 
which he accounted Christianity to be one, that our 
apostle owed his deliverance 

This indefatigable teacher, after leaving Corinth, 
returned by Ephesus and Syria ; and again visited 
Jerusalem and the society of Christians in that 
city, which, as hath been repeatedly observed, still 
continued the centre of the mission |[. It suited 
not, however, with the activity of his zeal to re- 
main long at Jerusalem. We find him going thence 
to Antioch, and, after some stay there, traversing; 
once more the northern provinces of Asia Minor^. 
This progress ended at Ephesus ; in which city 
the apostle continued in the daily exercise of his 



* Acts xvii. 1—5 t Ver. 13. Chap, xviii. 12. 

§ Ver, 18. ■ ii Chap, xviii. 22. f Ver. 23. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



47 



ministry two years, and until his "sticcess at length 
excited the apprehensions of those who were inte- 
rested in the support of the national worship. 
Their clamour produced a tumult, in which he had 
nearly lost his life*. Undismayed, ho^vever, by 
the danger to which he saw himself exposed, he 
was driven from Ephesus only to renew his labours 
in Greece. After passing over Macedonia, he 
thence proceeded to his former station at Corinth f. 
When he had formed his design of returning by a 
direct course from Corinth into Syria, he was com- 
pelled by a conspiracy of the Jews, who were pre- 
pared to intercept him on his way, to trace back 
his steps through Macedonia to Philippi, and 
thence to take shipping into Asia. Along the 
coast of Asia he pursued his voyage with all the 
expedition he could command, in order to reach 
Jerusalem against the -feast of Pentecost:]:. His 
reception at Jerusalem was of a piece with the 
usage he had experienced from the Jews in other 
places. He had only been a few days in that city 
when the populace, instigated by some of his old 
opponents in Asia, who attended this feast, seized 
him in the temple, forced him out of it, and were 
ready immediately to have destroyed him, had not 
the sudden presence of the Roman guard rescued 
hirn out of their hands §. The officer, however, 
who had thus seasonably interposed, acted from 
his care of the public peace, with the prefer vatioa 
of which he was charged, and hot from any favour 
to the apostle, or indeed any disposition to exercise 
either justice or humanity towards him ; for he had 
no sooner secured his person in the fortress, than 
he was proceeding to examine him by torture ||. 



* Acts xix. 1, 9, 10. 
§ Ctap. xxi» i?— 33. 



t Chap. XX. 1, 2. X Chap. XX. 16; 
II Chap, xxii, 22, 24. 



4S THE EVIDENCES 

Fi om this time, to the conclusion of the history, 
the apostle remains in public custody of the Roman 
government. After escaping assassination by a 
fortunate discovery of the plot, and delivering him^ 
self from the influence of his enemies by an appeal 
to the audience of the emperor*, he was sent, Imt 
not until he had suffered two years' imprison- 
ment, to Romef. He reached Italy, after a tedi- 
ous voyage, and after encountering in his passage 
the perils of a shipwreck J. But although still a 
prisoner, and his fate still depending, neither the 
various and long-continued sufferings w4iich he had 
undergone, nor the danger of his present situation, 
deterred him from persisting in preaching the reli- 
gion ; for the historian closes the account by telling 
us, that, for two years, he received all that came 
unto him in his own hired house, where he was 
permitted to dwell with a soldier that guarded him, 
" preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching 
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, 
with all confidence." 

Now the historian from whom we have drawn 
this account, in the part of his narrative which re- 
lates to Saint Paul, is supported by the strongest 
corroborating testimony that a history can receive. 
We are in possession of letters written by Saint 
Paul himself upon the subject of his ministry, 
and either written during the period which the 
history comprises, or, if written afterwards, re- 
citing and referring to the transactions of that 
period. These letters, without borrowing from 
the history, or the history from them, uninten- 
tionally confirm the account which the history 
delivers, in a great variety of particulars. What 
belongs to our present purpose is the description 



* Acts xxv.* h;. 11. f Chap. xxiv. 2T. 



Chap, xxvii. 



or CHRISTIANITY. 



49 



exhibited of the apostle's sufferings ; and the re- 
presentation given, in the history of the dangers 
and distresses which he underwent, not only 
agrees, in general, with the language which he 
himself uses whenever he speaks of his life or mi- 
nistry, but is also, in many instances, attested by a 
specific correspondency of time, place, and order 
of events* If the historian puts down in his nar- 
rative, that at Philippi the apostle " was beaten 
with many stripes, cast into prison, and there 
^ treated with rigour and indignity — we find him, 
in a letter f to a neighbouring church, reminding 
his converts that, "after he had suffered before, 
and was shamefully entreated at Philippi, he was 
bold, nevertheless, to speak unto them (to whose 
city he came next) the gospel of God." If the 
history relate :j: that, at Thessalonica, the house in 
which the apostle was lodged, when he first came 
to that place, was assaulted by the populace, and 
the master of it dragged before the magistrate for 
admitting such a guest within his doors, — the apos- 
tle, in his letters to the Christians of Thessalonica, 
calls to their remembrance how they had received 
the gospel in much affliction If the history 
deliver an account of an insurrection at Ephesus, 
which had nearly cost the apostle his life, we have 
the apostle himself, in a letter written a short time 
after his departure from that city, describing his 
despair, and returning thanks for his deliverance ||. 
If the history informs us that the apostle was ex- 
pelled from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to be 
stoned at Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra, 
there is preserved a letter from him to a favourite 



* Acts xvi. 24. t 1 Th«ss. ii. 2. J Acts xvii. ^5, 

f 1 Thess* i. Q, |^ Acts xix. 2 Cor, i. 8, 9. ^ 

E 



so 



THE EVIDENCES 



convert, whom, as the same history tells us, he 
met first with in these parts ; in which letter he 
appeals to that disciple's xknowledge "of the perse- 
cutions which befel him at i\ntioch, at Iconium, 
at Lystra*/' If the- history made the apostle, in 
his speech to the Ephesian elders, remind them, as 
one proof of the disinterestedness of his vievAs, 
that, to their knowledge, he had supplied his own 
and the necessities of his companions by personal 
labour t, — we find the same aposde, in a letter writ- 
ten during his residence at Ephesus, asserting of 
himself, " that even to that hour he laboured, 
working with his own hands;]:.'' 

These coincidences, together with many relative 
to other parts of the apostle's history, and all 
drawn from independent sources, not only confirm 
the truth of thj account in the particular points 
as to which they are observed, but add much to 
the credit of the narrative in all its parts ; and 
support the authors profession of being a contem- 
porary of the person whose history he writes, and, 
throughout a material portion of his narrative, a 
companion. 

What the epistles of the apostles declare of the 
suffering state of Christianity, tlie writings which 
remain of their companions and immediate fol- 
lowers, expressly confirm. 

Clement, who is honourably mentioned by St. 
Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians §, hath left 
us his attestation to this point, in the following 
words : — " Let us take (says he) the examples of 
our own age. Through zeal and envy, the most 
faithful and righteous pillars of the church have 



* Acts xiii, cO. xiv. 5, 19. 2 Tim. iii. 10, 11. f ActsxY. 34» 
t 1 Cor. iv. U, 12. § Phil. iv. 3. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 51 

been persecuted, even to the most grievous deaths. 
Let us set before our eyes the holy Jpostles. — • 
Peter, by unjust envy, underwent, not one or two, 
but many sufFerintTS ; till, at last, being martyred, 
he went to the place of glory that was due unto 
him. For the same cause did Paul, in like man- 
ner, receive the reward of his patience. Seven 
times he was in bonds; — he was whipped, — was 
stoned ; — he preached both in the East and in the 
West, leaving behind him the glorious report of 
his f[iith; and so, having taught the whole world 
righteousness, and for that end travelled even unto 
the utmost bounds of tlie West, he at last suffered 
martyrdom by the comnrand of the governors, and 
departed out of the world, and went unto his holy 
place, being become a most eminent pattern of 
patience unto all ages. To these holy apostles 
were joined a very great number of others, who 
having, through envy, undergone, in like manner, 
many pains and torments, have left a glorious ex- 
ample to us. For this, not only men, but women 
have been persecuted ; and, having sufi'ered very 
grievous and cruel punishments, have finished the 
course of ttieir faith with firmness*."' 

Hermas, saluted by Saint Paul in his Epistle to 
the Romans, in a piece very little connected with 
historical recitals, thus speaks: " Such as have be- 
lieved and suttered death for the name of Christ, 
and have endured with a ready mind, and have 
given up their lives with all their hearts f." 

Polycarp, the disciple of John (though all that 
remains of his work be a very short epistle) has 
not left this subject unnoticed. exhort (says 



* CIciTi. ad. Cor. c. v. vi. Abp. Wake's Tran. 
t iSht'pherd of Hermas, e. xx\iii. 

E 2 



62 



THE EVIDENCES 



he) all of you, that ye obey the word of righteous- 
ness, and exercise all patience, which ye have seen 
set forth before your eyes, not only in the blessed 
Ignatius, and Lorimus, and Rufus, but in others 
among yourselves, and in Paul himself and the 
rest of the apostles ; being confident in this, that 
all these have not run in vain, but in faith and 
righteousness ; and are gone to the place that was 
due to them from the Lord, with whom also they 
suffered ; — for they loved not this present world, 
but Him who died and was raised again by God 
for us*." 

Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, recog- 
nizes the same topic, briefly indeed, but positively 
and precisely : — For this cause {i. e. for having 
felt and handled Christ's body after his resurrec- 
tion, and being convinced, as Ignatius expresses it, 
both by his flesh and spirit) they (i. e. Peter and 
those who were present with Peter at Christ's ap- 
pearance) despised death, and were found to be 
above itt." 

Would the reader know vvhat a persecution in 
these days was, I would refer him to a circular 
letter, written by the Church of Smyrna soon after 
the death of Polycarp, who, it will be remembered, 
had lived with Saint John ; and which letter is en- 
titled A Relation of that Bishop's Martyrdom. 
^' The sufferings (say they) of all the other martyrs 
were blessed and generous, which tl>ey underwent 
according to the will of God ; — for so it hecomes 
us, who are more religious than otiiers, to ascribe 
the power and ordering of all things unto him; — 
and indeed, who can choose but admire the great- 
ness of their minds, and that admirable patience 



^ Pol. ad. Fiiil. c. i%- f 19 Ep, Smyr. c. iii. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



55 



and love of their Master which then appeared in 
them ! — who, when they were so flayed with whip- 
ping, that the frame and structure of their bodies 
were laid open to their very inward veins and 
arteries, nevertheless endured it. In like manner, 
those who were condemned to the beasts, and kept 
a long time in prison, underwent many cruel tor- 
ments, being forced to lie upon sharp spikes laid 
under their bodies, and tormented with divers other 
sorts of punishments ; that so, if it were possible, 
the tyrant, by the length of their sufferings^ might 
have brought them to deny Christ '^Z' 



* Rel. Mor. Pol. ^j, ii. 



54 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER V. 

There is satisfactorii Evidence that many ^profess- 
ing to be original IVitnesses of the Christian 
Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours, Dan- 
gers, and hufferings, voluntarily undergone in 
Attestation of the Accounts which thty de- 
livered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
')Kit ted, from the same Motives, to new Rules of 
Conduct, 

Upon the history, of which the last Chapter con- 
tains an abstract, there are a few observations 
which it may be proper to make, by way of apply- 
ing its testimony to the particular propositions for 
which we contend. 

I. Although our , Scripture-history leaves the ge- 
neral account of the apostles in an early part of 
the narrative, and proceeds with the separate ac- 
count of one particular apostle, yet the information 
v.hich it delivers so far extends to the rest, as it 
shows the nature of the service. When we see 
one apostle suffering persecution in the discharge 
of his commission, we shall not believe, without 
evidence, that the same office could, at the same 
time, be attended with ease and safety to others ;— 
and this fair and reasonable inference is confirmed 
by the direct attestation of the letters to which we 
have so often referred. The writer of these letters 
not only alludes, in numerous passages, to his 
own sufferings, but speaks of the rest of the apostles 
as enduring like sufferings with himself. 1 think 
that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



55 



were appointed to death ; for we are made a spec- 
tacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men ; — 
even unto this present hour we both hunger and 
thirst, and are naked, and are bufFetted, and have 
no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working 
with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless ; 
being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we 
entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, 
and as the ofFscouring of all things unto this day.*" 
Add to which that, in the short account that is 
given of the other apostles, in the former part of 
the history, and within the short period which that 
account comprises, we find, first, two of them 
seized, imprisoned, brought before the Sanhedrim, 
and threatened with further punishment f ; — then, 
the wtiole number imprisoned and beaten J ; — 
soon afterwards, one of their adherents stoned to 
death; and so hot a persecution raised against the 
sect, as to drive most of them out of the place ; — 
u short time only succeeding before one of the 
twelve was beheaded, and another sentenced to the 
same fate ; and all this passing in the single city of 
Jerusalem, and within ten years after the Foun- 
ders death and the commencement of the insti- 
tution. 

II. We take no credit at present for the mi- 
raculous part of the narrative ; nor do we insist 
upon the correctness of single passages of it. If 
the whole story be not a novel, a romance ; the 
whole action a dream ; if Peter, and James, and 
Paul, and the rest of the apostles mentioned in 
the account, be not all imaginary persons ; if 
their letters be not all forgeries, and, what is 
more, forgeries of i^ames and characters which 



* 1 Cor. iv. 9—18. f A«ts iv. 2, 21. % Aets y. 18, 40. 



56 



THE EVIDENCES 



never existed, — then is there evidence in our 
^ands sufficient to support the only fact we contend 
for (and which, I repeat agahi, is in itself highly 
probable) that the original followers of Jesus 
Christ exerted great endeavours to propagate his 
religion ; and underwent great labours, dangers, 
and sufferings, in consequence of their under- 
taking. 

, III. The general reality of the apostolic history 
is strongly confirmed by the consideration, that it, 
in truth, does no more than assign adequate causes 
for effects w^hich certainly w^ere produced, and de- 
scribe consequences naturally resulting from situa- 
tions which certainly existed. The effects were cer- 
tainly there, of w'hich this history sets forth the 
cause, and origin, and progress. It is acknowledged 
on all hands, because it is recorded by other testi- 
mony than that of the Christians themselves, That 
the religion began to prevail at that time, and in 
that country. It is very difficult to conceive how it 
could begin, or prevail at all, without the exertions 
of the Founder and his followers in propagating 
the new persuasion. The history now in our hands 
describes these exertions, the persons employed, 
the means and endeavours made use of, and the 
labours undertaken in the prosecution of this 
purpose. Again, The treatment w^hich the history 
represents the first propagators of the religion to 
have experienced, was no other than what naturally 
resulted from the situation in which they were 
confessedly placed. It is admitted that the reli- 
gion was adverse, in a great degree, to the reign- 
ing opinions, and to the hopes and wishes of the 
nation to which it was first introduced ; and that it 
overthrew, so far as it was received, the established 
theology and w^orship of every other country. — 



OF CHRISTIANITY. S7 

We cahnot feel much reluctance in believing 
that, when the messengers of such a system went 
about, not only publishing their opinions, but col- 
lecting proselytes, and forming regular societies 
of proselytes, they should meet with opposition 
in their attempts, or that this opposition should 
sometimes proceed to fatal extremities. Our his- 
tory details examples of this opposition, and of the 
sufferings and dangers which the emissaries of the 
religion underwent, perfectly agreeeable to what 
might reasonably be expected, from the nature of 
iheir undertaking, compared with the character of 
the age and country in which it was carried on. 

IV. The records before us supply evidence of 
ivhat formed another member of our general pro- 
position ; and what, as hath already been observed, 
is highly probable, and almost a necessary conse- 
quence of their new profession, viz. that, together 
with activity and courage in propagating the reli- 
gion, the primitive followers of Jesus assumed, 
upon their conversion, a new and peculiar course 
of private life. Immediately after their Master 
was withdrawn from th'em, we hear of their con- 
tinuing with one accord in prayer and supplica- 
tion ^ ;" of their continuing daily with one ac- 
cord in the temple | ;" of many being gathered to- 
gether praying J." We know what strict injunc- 
tions were laid upon the converts by their teachers. 
Wherever they came, the first word of their 
preaching was Repent ! We know that these in- 
junctions obliged them to refrain from many species 
of licentiousness, which were not at that time re^ 
puted criminal. We know the rules of Purity and 



* Acts i. 14. 



t Chap. ii. 46. 



Chap. xii. 12, 



58 



THE EVIDENCES 



the maxims of Benevolence, which Christians 
read in their books ; concerning which rules, it is 
enough to observe, That if they were, I will not 
say completely obeyed, but in any degree re- 
garded, they would produce a system ofcrnduct, 
and, what is more difficult to preserve, a disposi- 
tion of mind, and a regulation of affections, dif- 
ferent from any thing to which they had hitherto 
been accustomed, and difierent from what they 
would see in others. The change and distinction 
of manners which resulted from their new cha- 
racter, is perpetually referred to in tlje letters of 
their teachers. ^ *'And you hath he quickened, 
who xvere dead in trespasses and sins, wherein, 
in times past, ye walked, according to the course 
of this world, according to the Prince of the power 
of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the chil- 
dren of Disobedience ; among whom also we had 
our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our 
flesh, fulfilHng the desires of the flesh, and of the 
mind, and were by nature the children of Wrath, 
even as others For the time past of our life 

may suflice us to have wrought the will of the Gen- 
tiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, ex- 
cess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abomin- 
able idolatries, zvherein they think it strange that 
ye run riot with them to the same excess of riot f." 
Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, 
after iCnumerating, as his manner was, a catalogue 
of vicious characters, adds, " Such were some of 
you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified ||.'* 
In like manner, and alluding to the same change of 
practices and sentiment, he asks the Roman Chris- 



* Eph. ii. 1—3. See also Tit iii. 8, 
t 1 Pet. iv. 3, 4. 
I 1 Cor. vi. 11. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



S9 



tians " What fruit they had in those things, where- 
of they are now ashamed The phrases which 
the same writer employs to describe the moral con- 
dition of Christians, compared with iheir condition 
before they became Christians, such as newness 
of life,'' being freed from sin," being " dead to 
sin the destruction of the body of sin, ihat^foj^ 
the future, they should not serve sin;" children 
of light and of the day," as opposed to "children 
of darkness and of the night " not sleeping as 
others," — imply, at least, a new system of obli- 
gation, and, probably, a new series of conduct, 
commencing with their conversion. 

The testimony which Pliny bears to the beha- 
viour of the new sect in his time, and which testi- 
mony comes not more than fifty years after that of 
Saint Paul, is very applicable to the subject under 
consideration. The character which this writer 
gives of the Christians of that age, and which was 
drawn from a pretty accurate enquiry, because 
he considered their moral principles as the point in 
which the magistrate was interested, is as fol- 
lows: — He tells the emperor, '* That some of 
those who had relinquished the society, or who, to 
save themselves, pretended that they had relin- 
quished it, athrmcd that they were w ont to meet 
together, on a stated day, before it was light, and 
sang among themselves alternately a hymn to 
Christ as a God ; and to bind themselves by an 
oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, 
but that they would not be guilty of theft, or rob- 
bery, or adultery; that they would never falsify 
their word, or deny a pledge committed to them, 
when called upon to return it. This proves that a 



* Rom. vi. 21, 



60 



THE EVIDENCES 



morality, more pure and strict than was ordinary, 
prevailed at that time in Christian societies ; and 
to me it appears, that we are authorized to carry 
this testimony back to the age of the apostles ; be- 
cause it is not probable that the immediate hearers 
and disciples of Christ were more relaxed than 
their successors in Pliny's time, or the Mission- 
aries of the religion than those whom they taught. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



CHAPTER VL 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many, profess- 
ing to be original Witnesses of the Christian 
Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours, Dan^ 
gers, and Sufferings, voluntarily undergone in 
Attestation of the Accounts which they deli- 
vered, and solely in consequence of their Belief 
of those Accounts ; a}id that they also sub- 
mitted, from the same Motives, to nezo Rules of 
Conduct. 

W HEN we consider, first, The prevalency of the 
religion at this hour ; secondly. The only credible 
account which can be given of its origin, viz, the 
activity of the Founder and his associates ; thirdly^ 
The opposition which that activity must naturally 
have excited ; fourthly, The fate of the Founder 
of the religion, attested bv Heathen writers as 
well as our own ; fifthly, The testimony of the 
same writers to the sufferings of Christians, either 
contemporary with, or immediately succeeding, the 
original settlers of the institution; sixthly. Predic- 
tions of the sufferings of his followers ascribed to 
the Founder of the religion, which ascription alone 
proves, either that such predictions were delivered 
and fulfilled, or that the writers of Christ's life 
were induced by the event to attribute such pre- 
dictions to him ; seventhly, Letters now in our 
possession, written by some of the principal agents 
in the transaction, referring expressly to extreme 
labours, dangers, and sufferings, sustained by them- 
selves and their companion^ ; lastly^ A history pur- 



62 



THE EVIDENCES 



porting to be written by a fellow-traveller of one 
of the new teachers, and, by its unsophisticated 
correspondency with letters of that person still ex- 
tant, proving itself to be written by some one well 
acquainted with the subject of the narrative ; which 
history contains accounts of travels, persecutions, 
and martyrdoms, answering to what the former 
reasons leads us to expect ; — when we lay toge- 
ther these considerations, which, taken separately, 
are, I think, correctly, such as I have stated them 
in the preceding chapter, there cannot much doubt 
remain upon our mmds, but that a number of per- 
sons at that time appeared in the world, publicly 
advancing an extraordinary story, and, for the 
sake of propagating the belief of that story, volun- 
tarily incurring great personal dangers, traversing 
seas and kingdoms, exerting great industry, and 
sustaining great extremities of ill usage and perse- 
cution. It is also proved, that the same persons, 
in consequence of their persuasion, or pretended 
persuasion of the truth of what they asserted, en- 
tered upon a course of life in many respects new 
and sincfular. 

From the clear and acknowledged parts of the 
case, I think it to be likewise in the highest de* 
gree probable, that the story, for which these per- 
sons voluntarily exposed themselves to the fatigues 
and hardships w^hich they endured, was a miracul- 
ous stor^ : 1 mean that they pretended to miracul- 
ous evidence of some kind or other. They had 
nothing else to stand upon. The designation of the 
person, that is to say, that Jesus of Nazareth, ra- 
ther than any other person, was the Messiah, and, 
as such, the subject of their ministry, could only 
be founded upon supernatural tokens attributed 
to him. Here were no victories, no conquests, no 
revolutions, no surprizing elevation of fortune, no 
achievement of valour, of strength, or of policy 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



63 



to appeal to ; no discoveries in any art or science, 
no great efforts of genius or learning to produce. 
A Galilean peasant was announced to the world as 
a divine lawgiver. A young man of mean condi- 
tion, of a private and simple life, and who had 
wrought no deliverance for the Jewish nation, was 
declared to be their Messiah. This, without as- 
cribing to him at the same time some proofs of his 
mission (and what other but supernatural proofs 
could there be?) was too absurd a claim to be 
either imagined, or attempted, or credited. In 
"whatever degree, or in whatever part, the religion 
was argiimentatwe when it came to the question, 
*^ Is the carpenter's son of Nazareth the person 
whom we are to receive and obey There was no- 
thing but the miracles attributed to him, by which 
his pretensions could be maintained for a moment. 
Every controversy and every question must pre- 
suppose these ; for however such controversies, 
when they did arise, might, and naturally would, 
be discussed upon their own grounds of argumen- 
tation, without citing the miraculous evidence 
which had been asserted to attend the Founder of 
the religion (which would have been to enter upon 
another and a more general question) yet w^e are 
to bear in mind, that, without previously suf)posing 
the existence or pretence of such evidence, there 
could have I)een no place for the discussion or the 
argument at all. Thus, for example, whether the 
prophecies, which the Jews interpreted to belong 
to the Messiah, were or w ere not applicable to the 
history of Jesus of Nazareth, was a natural subject 
of debate in those times ; and the debate w ould 
proceed, without recurring at every turn to his 
miracles, because it set out with supix)sing these, 
inasmuch as without miraculous marks and tokens 
(real or pretended) or without some such great 



THE EVIDENCES 



change effected by this means in the public condi- 
tion of the country, as might have satisfied the 
then received interpretation of these prophecies, 
I do not see hovv f;he question could ever have been 
entertained. Apollos, we read, mightily con- 
vinced the Jev.'s, ^hov.ing, by the Scriptures, that 
Jesu^ was Christ'^;" but unless Jesus had exhi- 
bited some distinction of his person, some proof 
of supernatural power, the argument from the old 
Scriptures could have had no place : — it had no- 
thing to attach upon. A young man, caUing him- 
s,elf the Son of God, gathering a crowd about 
him, and delivering to them lectures of morality, 
could not have excited so much as a doubt amonji 
tiie Jews, whether he was the object in whom a 
long series of ancient prophecies terminated, from 
the cor/ipletion of which they had formed such 
magnificent expectations, and expectations of a 
nature so opposite to what he appeared : I mean, 
no such doubt could exist when they had the whole 
case before them, — when they saw him put to 
death for his officiousness, — and when, by his death, 
the evidence concerning him was closed. Again, 
the effect of the Messiah's coming, supposing 
Jesus to have been him, upon Jews, upon Gentiles, 
upon their relation to each other, upon their ac- 
ceptance with God, upon their duties and their 
expectations ; his nature, authority, office, and 
agency, — were likely to become subjects of much 
consideration with the early votaries of the religion, 
and to occupy their attention and writings. I should 
not, however, expect that, in these disquisitions, 
whether preserved in the form of letters, speeches, 
or set treatises, frequent or very direct mention 
of his miracles would occur. Still miraculous evi- 



^ Acts x\iii. 28. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



65 



dence lay at the bottom of the argument. In the 
primary question, miraculous pretensions, and mi- 
raculous pretensions alone, were what they had to 
rely upon. 

That the original story was miraculous, is very 
fairly also inferred from the miraculous powers 
which were laid claim to by the Christians of suc- 
ceeding ages. If the accounts of these miracles 
be true, it was a continuation of the same powers ; 
if they be false, it was an imitation, I will not say 
of what had been wrought, but of what had been 
reported to have been wrought, by those who pre- 
ceded them. That imitation should follow reality; 
fiction be grafted upon truth ; that, if miracles were 
performed at first, miracles should be pretended 
afterwards, — agrees so well with the ordinary course 
of human affairs, that we can have no great dilfi- 
culty in believing it. The contrary supposition is 
very improbable, namely, that miracles should be 
pretended to by the followers of the aposdes and 
first emissaries of the religion, when none were 
pretended to, either in their own persons or that of 
their Master, by these apostles and emissaries 
themselves. 



F 



66 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER VIL 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many, pro- 
fessing to be original IFitnesses of the Chris- 
tian jWiracks, passed their Lives in Labours, 
Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts zvhich they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
mitted, from the same Motives, to new Rules of 
Conduct, 

It being then once proved that the first propa- 
gators of the Christian institution did exert ac- 
tivity, and subject themselves to great dangers and 
sufferings in consequence, and for the sake of an 
extraordinary, and, I think, we may say of a mira- 
culous story of some kind or other, — the next great 
question is, Whether the account which our Scrip- 
tures contain be that story? that which these men 
delivered, and for which they acted and sufl'ered as 
they did ? This question is, in effect, no other 
than Whether the story which Christians have noxv, 
be the story which Christians had then ? And of 
this the following proofs may be deduced from ge- 
neral considerations, and from considerations prior 
to any inquiry into the particular reasons and testi- * 
monies by which the authority of our histories is 
supported. 

In the first place, there exists no trace or ves- 
tige of any other story. It is not, like the death 
of Cyrus the Great, a competition between op- 
posite accounts, or between the credit of different 
historians. There is not a document, or scrap of 
account, either contemporary with the commence- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



ment of Christianity, or extant within many ages 
after that conamencement, which assigns a history 
substantially different from ours. The remote, 
brief, and incidental notices of the affair, which are 
found in heathen writers, so far as they do go, go 
along with us. They bear testimony to these 
facts : — That the institution originated from Jesus ; 
that the founder was put to death as a malefactor 
at Jerusalem, by the authority of the Roman go- 
vernor, Pontius Pilate; that the religion neverthe- 
less spread in that city, and throucrhoat Judea ; and 
that it was propagated from thence to distant 
countries ; that the converts were numerous ; that 
they suffered great hardships and injuries for their 
profession ; and that ail this took place in the age 
of the world which our books have assigned. They 
go on further, to describe ttie manners of Chris- 
tians in terms perfectly conformable to the ac- 
counts extant in our books ; that they were wont 
to assemf)le on a certain day; that they sung 
hymns to Christ as to a god ; that they bound them- 
selves by an oath not to commit any crime, but to 
abstain from theft and adultery, to adhere strictly 
to their promises, and not to deny money deposited 
in their hands ; that they worshipped him who 
was crucified in Palestine ; that this their first 
lawgiver had taught them, that they were all bre- 
thren ; that they had a great contempt for the 
things of the world, and looked upon them as 
common ; that they flew to one another's relief; 
that they cherished strong hopes of immortality ; 



* See Pliny's Letter. — Bonnet, in his lively way of expressing 
himself, says, Comparing Pliny's Letter with the account in the 
Acts, it seems to me that I had not taken up another author, but 
that I was still reading the historian of that extraordinar) society.'' 
— This is strong; but there is undoubtedly aw affinity, a»d all the 
affinity that could be expected. 



6S 



THE EVIDENCES 



that they despised death, and surrendered theiil^ 
selves to sufferings*," This is the account of 
writers who viewed the subject at a great distance ; 
who were uninformed and uninterested about it. 
It bears the characters of such an account upon 
the face of it, because it describes effects, namely, 
the appearance in the world of a new rehgion, and 
the conversion of great multitudes to it, without 
descending, in the smallest degree, to the detail of 
the transaction upon which it was founded, the in- 
terior of the institution, the evidence or arguments 
offered by those who drew over others to it. Yet 
still here is no contradiction of our story ; no other 
or different story set up against it ; but so far a con- 
firmation of it, as that, in tire general points upon 
which the heathen account touches, it agrees with 
that which we find in our own books. 

The same may be observed of the very few Jewish 
writers, of that and the adjoining period, which 
have come down to us. Whatever they omit, or 
whatever difficulties we may find in explaining the 
omission, they advance no other history of the 
transaction than that which we acknowledge. Jo- 
sephus, who wrote his Antiquities, or History of 
the Jews, about sixty years after the commence- 
mentof Christianity, in a passage generally admitted 
as genuine, makes mention of John, under the name 
of John the Baptist; that he was a preacher of 



* " It is incredible what expedition tliey use when any of tJieir 
iriends are known to be in trouble. In a word, they spare nothinc^ 
«pon such an occasion ; — for these miserable men have no doubt 
tliey shall Ue inunortal, and live for ever ; therefore they contemn 
death, and niay surrender themselves to sufferings. Moreover, tlieir 
first lawgiver has taught them that they were all brethren when, 
once they have turned and renounced the gods of the Greeks, and 
w^orship this Master of theirs, who was crucified, and engage to live 
accordhig to his laws. They have also a sovereign contempt for all 
the things of this world, and look upon them as common/' LneiaTt . 
de Morte Peregrim^ t. i. p. 565. ed, Gr(Bh\ 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



69 



virtue; that he baptized his proselytes; that he 
was well received by the people ; that he was im- 
prisoned and put to death by Herod ; and that 
Herod lived in a criminal cohabitation with Hero- 
dias, his brothers wife*. In another passable, 
allowed by many, although not without considerable 
question being moved about it, we hear of James, 
the brother of him who was called Jesus, and of his 
being put to death 'f." In a third passage, extant 
in every copy that remains of Josephus's History, 
but the authenticity of which has nevertheless been 
long disputed, we have an explicit testiniony to the 
substance of our history in these words : — " At 
that time lived Jesus, a wise man, if he may be 
called a man ; for he performed many wonderful 
works. He was a teacher of such men as received 
the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him 
many Jews and Gentiles. This was the Chi'ist ; 
and when Pilate, at the instigation of the chief 
men among us, had condemned him to the cross, 
they, who before had conceived an affection for 
him, did not cease to adhere to him ; for, on the 
third day, he appeared to them alive again, the 
divine prophets having foretold these and many 
wonderful things concerning him ; and the sect of 
the Christians, so called from him, subsists to this 
time ;]:." Whatever become of the controversy 
concerning the genuineness of this passage ; whe- 
ther Josephus go the whole length of our history, 
which, if the passage be sincere he does ; or whe- 
ther he proceed only a very little way with us, 
which, if the passage be rejected, we confess to be 
the case, — still what we asserted is true, that he 



* Aiitiq. 1. x\iii. cap. v. sect. I, 2. 
t Antiq. i. xx. cap. ix. sect. 1. 
^ Autkj. I. x\iii. cap. iii. sect 3, 



70 THE EVIDENCES 

gives no other or different history of the subject 
from ours, no other or different account of the 
origin of the institution ; and I think also that it 
may with great reason be contended, either that the 
passage is genuine, or that the silence of Josephus 
was designed ; for, although we should lay aside 
the authority of our own books entirely, yet when 
Tacitus, who wrote not twenty, perliaps not ten 
years after Josephus, in his account of a period in 
which Josephus was nearly thirty years of age, tells 
us, that a vast multitute of Christians were cou- 
den^ned at Rome ; that they derived their denomi- 
nation from Christ, who, in tlie reign of I'lberius, 
w^as put to death as a criminal by the procurator, 
Pontius Pilate ; that the superstition had spread 
not only over Judea, the source of the evil, but 
had reached Rome also : when Suetonius, an his- 
torian contemporary with Tacitus, relates, that in 
the time of Claudius, the Jews were making dis- 
turbances at Rome, Christus being their leader ; 
and that, during the reign of Nero, the Christians 
were punished ; under both which emperors, Jo- 
sephus lived : v\hen Pliny, who wrote his ce- 
lebrated episile not more than thirty vears after tne 
publication of Josephus's history, found tiie Chris- 
tians in such numbers in tiie province of Bithynia, 
as to draw from him a complamt that the contagion 
had seized cities, towns, and villages, and had so 
seized them as to produce a general desertion of the 
public rites; and when, as has already been ob- 
served, there is no reason for imagining that the 
Christians were more numerous in Biihynia than in 
many other parts of the Roman empire, — it cannot, 
I should suppose, after this, be believed that the 
religion, and tlie transaction upon which it was 
founded, were too obscure to engage the attention 
of Josephus, or to obtain a place in his history. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



71 



Perhaps he did not know how to represent the bu- 
siness ; and disposed of his difFicuhies by passing it 
over in silence. Eusebius wrote the life of Con- 
stantine, yet omits entirely the most remarkable 
circumstance in that life, the death of his son 
C rispus, — undoubtedly for the reason here given.. 
The reserve of Josephus upon the subject of Chris- 
tianity pppears also in his passing over the banish- 
ment of the Jews by Claudius, which Suetonius, 
we have seen, has recorded with an express refer- 
ence to Christ. This is at least as remarkable as 
his silence about the infants of Bethlehem *. Be 
however the fact, or the cause of the omission in 
Josephus j', what it may, no other or different his- 
tory on the subject has been given by him, or is 
pretended to have been given. 

But farther : The whold series of Christian writers, 
from the first age of the institution down to the pre- 
sent, m their discussions, apologues, arguments, 
and controversies, proceed upon the general story 
which our scriptures contain, and upon no other. 
The main facts, the principal agents, are alike in 
all. This argument will appear to be of great 
force, when it is known that we are able to trace 
back the series of writers to a contact with the his- 



* Michaelis has computed, and, as it sliould seem fairly enough, 
that probably not more than twenty ciiildren perished by this cruel 
precaution. Michael. Introd. to the New Tistament, translated hy 
Marsh; vol. i. c. ii. sect. 11. 

t Tiiere is no notice talven of Christianity in the JNIisiina: a collec- 
tion of Jewish traditions compiled ai)()ut the year 180, altliougii it 
contains a Tract (" De cultu peregrine") of strange or idolatrous 
worship: yet it cauuot be disputed but tliat Christianity was per- 
fectly well kiio\\ n iii the world at this time. There is extremely 
little notice of the subject in the Jerusalem Talnind, compiii d Pout 
the year 300; and not much more in tlie Babylonish Talmud, of 
the year 500; although both these works are of a religir.us nature, 
and although, when the first was compiled, Christianity was upon 
the point ot becoming the religion the state ; and, when tne latter 
\ias published, had been so for 200 years. 



72 



THE EVIDENCES 



torical books of the New Testament, and to the ag© 
of the first emissaries of the rehgion, and to deduce 
it, by an unbroken continuation from that end of 
the train to the present. 

Tiie remaining letters of the apostles (and what 
more original than their letters can we have?) 
though written without the remotest design of trans- 
mitting the history of Christ, or of Christianity, 
to future ages, or even of making it known to their 
contemporaries, incidentally disclose to us the fol- 
lowing circumstances : — Christ's descent and fa- 
mily; his innocence; the meekness and gentleness 
of his character (a recognition which goes to the 
whole Gospel history j ; his exalted nature, his cir- 
cumcision, his transfiguration, his life of opposition 
and suffering, his patience and resignation ; the ap- 
pointment of the eucharist, and the manner of it ; 
his agony, his confession before Pontius Pilate ; hi^ 
stripes, crucifixion, and burial ; his resurrection ; his 
appearance after it first to Peter, then to the rest 
of the apostles ; his ascension into Heaven, and his 
designation to be the future judge of mankind ; 
the stated residence of the apostles at Jerusalem ; 
the working of miracles by the first preachers of 
the Gospel, who were also the hearers of Christ* ; 
the successful propagation of the religion ; the 



* Heb. ii. 3. " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great sal- 
vation, wbich, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord, and was 
contirmed unto us hy them that heard him; God also bearing them 
witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and 
gifts of the Holy Ghost?'' — I allege this epistle without hesitation ; 
jbr whatever doubts may have been raised about its author, there 
<;an be none concerning the age in which it was written. No epistle 
in the collection carries about it more indubitable marks of antiquity 
than this does, it speaks, for instance, throughout, of the temple 
as then standing, and of the worship of the temple as then subsisting. 
Heb. viii. 4. " For if he M ere on earth, he should not be a priest, 
seeing there are priests that offer according to the law." — Again^ 
Heb. xiii. 10. " We have an altar whereof they have no right to cjii 
which serve the tabernacle." 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



75 



persecution of its followers ; the miraculous con- 
version of Paul ; miracles wrought by himself, and 
alleged in his controversies with his adversaries, 
and in letters to the persons amongst whom they 
were wrought ; — finally, that miracles xvere tJie 
signs of an apostle 

In an epistle bearing the name of Barnabas, the 
companion of Paul, probably genuine, certainly 
belonging to that age, we have the sufferings of 
Christ, his choice of apostles and their number, 
his passion, the scarlet robe, the vinegar ai)d gall, 
the mocking and piercing, the casting lots for his 
coat f , his resurrection on the eighth (i. e. the first 
day of the week J) and the commemorative dis- 
tinction of that day, his manifestation after his re- 
surrection, and lastly his ascension. We hav6 also 
his miracles generally but positively referred to in 
the following words: — ^' Finally teaching the people 
of Israel, and doing many ivonders and signs 
among them, he preached to them, and shewed 
the exceeding great love which he bare towards 
them§." 

In an epistle of Clement, a hearer of Saint 
Paul, although written for a purpose remotely 
connected with the Christian history, we have the 
resurrection of Christ, and the subsequent mission 
of the apostles, recorded in these satisfactory 
terms : l^he apostles have preached to us from our 
Lord Jesus Christ, from God ; for, having received 
their command, and being thoroughly assured by 
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, they 
went abroad, publishing that the kingdom of God 



* 2 Cor. xii. 12. " Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought 
miiong' you io all patience, in signs and wonders, atid mighty 
deeds." 

i Ep. Bar. c. YiL + Ibid, c. vi. § Ibid. o. v. 



74 



THE EVIDENCES 



was at hand *. We find noticed also, the humi- 
lity, yet the power of Christ f, his descent from 
Abraham, his crucifixion. We have Peter and 
Paul represented as faithful and righteous pillars 
of the church ; the numerous sufferings of Peter ; 
the bonds, stripes, and stoning of Paul ; and more 
particularly his extensive and unwearied travels. 

In an epistle to Polycarp, a disciple of Saint 
John, though only a brief hortatory letter, we 
have the humihty, patience, sufferings, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension of Christ, together with the 
apostf lie character of Saint Paul, distinctly recog- 
nised J. Of this same father we are also assured 
by Irenaeus, that he (Irenasus) had heard him re- 
late what he had received from eye-witnesses 
concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles 
and his doctrine 

In the remaining works of Ignatius, the con- 
temporary of Polycarp, larger than those of Poly- 
carp (yet, like those of Polycarp, treating of sub- 
jects in nowise leading to any recital of the Chris- 
tian history) the occasional allusions are propor- 
tionably more numerous. The descent of Christ 
from David, his mother Mary, his miraculous con- 
ception, the star at his birth, his baptism by John, 
the reason assigned for it, his appeal to the pro- 
phets, the ointment poured on his head, his suffer- 
ings under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch, 
his resurrection, the Lord's Day, called and kept in 
commemoration of it, and the eucharist, in both 
its parts, — are unequivocally referred to. Upon 
the resurrection, this writer is even circumstantial. 
He mentions the apostles eating and drinking with 



* Ep. Clem Rom. c. xlii. 
+ Ibid. c. xvi. 

+ Pol. Ep- ad Phil. c. v. viii. ii. iii. 
§ Ir. ad Flor. ap, Eus./ 1. v. c. 20, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



75 



Christ after he was risen, their feeling and their 
handling him ; fronri which last circumstance Ig- 
natius raises this just reflection : — " They believed, 
being convinced both by his flesh and spirit ; for 
this cause, they despised death, and were found 
to be above it*." 

Quadratus, of the same age with Ignatius, has 
left us the following noble testimony: — ^' The 
■works of our Saviour wexe always conspicuous, 
for they were real ; both they that were healed 
and they that were raised from the dead ; who 
were seen not only when they were healed or 
raised, but for a long time afterwards ; not only 
■whilst he dwelt on this earth, but also after his 
departure, and for a good while after it, inso- 
much that some of them have reached to our 
times t." 

Justin Martyr came little more than thirty years 
after Quadratus. From Justin's works, which are 
still extant, might be collected a tolerably complete 
account of Christ's life, in all points agreeing with 
that which is delivered in our Scriptures ; taken, 
indeed, in a great measure, from those Scriptures, 
but still proving that this account, and no other, 
■was the account known and extant in that ace. 

c 

The miracles in particular which form part of 
Christ's history most material to be traced, stand 
fully and distinctly recognised in the following 
passage: — " He healed those who had been blind, 
and deaf, and lame from their birth ; causing, by 
his word, one to leap, another to hear, and a third 
to see ; and by raising the dead, and making them 
to live, he induced, by his w^orks, the men of that 
age to know him J." 



* Ad Smyr. c. iii. 

t Ap. Ens. H. E. lib 4. c. 8. 

i Just.. Dial, curu Trypb, p. 288. ed. Thirl. 



76 



THE EVIDENCES 



It is unnecessary to carry these citations lower, 
because the history, after this time, occurs in 
ancient Christian writings as familiarly as it is wont 
to do in modern sermons ; — occurs always the 
same in substance, and always that which our evanr 
gelists represent. 

This is not only true of those wi^itin^s of Chris- 
tians which are genuine, and of acknowledged 
authority, but it is, in a great measure, true of all 
their ancient writings which remain, — although 
some of these may have been erroneously ascribed 
tQ authors to whoip they did not belong, or may 
contain false accounts, or may appear to be unde- 
serving of credit, or never indeed to have obtainecj 
any. Whatever fables they have mixed with the 
narrative, they preserve the material part3> the 
leading facts, as w^e have them ; and so far as they 
i\o this, although they be evidence of nothing else, 
they are evidence that these points were Ji.ved, 
were received and acknowledged by all Christians 
in the ages in which the books were written. At 
least, it may be asserted, that, in the places where 
we were most likely to meet with such things, if 
such things had existed, no reliques appear of 
any story substantially different from the present, 
as the cause, or as the pretence, of the institu- 
tion. 

Now, that the original story, the story delivered 
by the first preaciiers of the institution, should 
have died aw^ay so entirely as to have left no re- 
cord or memorial of its existence, although so 
many records and memorials of the time and 
transaction remain,— and that another story should 
have stepped into its place, and gained exclusive 
possession of the belief of all who professed them- 
selves disciples of the institution, is beyond any 
example of the corruption of even oral tradition, 
and still less consistent with the experience 



OF CHRISTlANItr. 77 

written history: and this improbability, which is 
very great, is rendered still greater by the reflec- 
tion, that no such change as the obhvion of one 
story and the substitution of another, took place 
in any future period of the Christian sera. Chris- 
tianity hath travelled through dark and turbulent 
ages ; nevertheless, it came out of the cloud and 
thexstorm such, in substance, as it entered in. 
Many additions were made to the primitive his- 
tory, and these entitled to different degrees of 
credit ; many doctrinal errors also were from time 
to time grafted into the public creed, but still the 
original story remained, and remained the sam.e. 
In all its principal parts it has been fixed from the 
beginning. 

Thirdly, The religious rites and usages that pre- 
f ailed amongst the early disciples of Cliristianity^ 
were such as belonged to, and sprung out of, the 
narrative now in our hands ; which accordancy 
shows, that it was the narrative upon which these 
persons acted, and which they had received from 
their teachers. Our account makes the Founder 
of the religion direct that his disciples should be 
baptized : — we know that the first Christians were 
baptized. Our account makes him direct that 
they should hold religious assemblies : — we find that 
tiiey did hold religious assemblies. Our accounts 
jnake the apostles assemble upon a stated day of 
the week : — we find, and that from information 
perfectly independent of our accounts, that the 
Christians of the first century did observe stated 
days of assembling. Our histories record the in- 
stitution of the rite which we call the Lords Sup- 
per, and a command to repeat it in perpetual suc- 
cession : — we find, among the early Christians, the 
celebration of this rite universal. And indeed 
we find concurring in all the above-mentioned 
observances. Christian societies, of many different 



78 



THE EVIDENCES 



nations and languages, removed from one another 
by great distance of place and dissimilitude of 
situation. It is also extremely material to remark, 
that there is no room for insinuating that our 
books were fabricated with a studious accommoda* 
tion to the usages which obtained at the time they 
were written ; that the authors of the books found 
the usages established, and framed the story to 
account for their original. The scripture ac- 
counts, especially of the Lord's Supper, are too 
short and cursory, not to say too obscure, and, in 
this view, deficient, to allow a place for any such 
suspicion*." 

Amongst the proofs of the truth of our proposi^ 
tion, viz. That tiie story, which we have ?20zv, is, 
in substance, the story which the Chri tians had 
then ; or, in other words, Tliat the accounts in our 
Gospels are, as to their principal parts at least, tlie 
accounts which the apostles and original teachers 
of the religion delivered, one arises from observ- 
ing, that it appears by the Gospels themselves that 
the story was public at the time ; that the Chris- 
tian community was already in possession of the 
substance and principal parts of the narrative. 
The Gospels were not the original cause of the 
Christian history being believed, but were them- 
selves among the consequences of that belief.— 
This is expressly affirmed by Saint Luke, in his 
brief, but, as I think, very important and instruc- 
tive preface : — " Forasmuch (says the evangelist) 
as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a 
declaration of those things which arc most surely 



* The reader who is conversant in these researches, by compar- 
ing the short Scripture accounts of tlie Christian rites above-mention- 
ed, with the minute and circumstantial directions contained in the 
pretended apostolical constitutions, will see the force of this obser- 
vation j the difference between truth and forgery. 



OF CHRISTIAXITY. 



79 



believed amongst us, even as they delivered them 
unto us, zvhich, from the beginning, were eye- 
uitnesses and ministers of the xcord, it seemed 
good to me also, having had perfect understanding 
of ail things from the very first, to write unto thee 
in order, most excelleni Theophilus, that thou 
inightest l<now the certainty of those things where- 
in thou hast been i^istructedr — This short intro- 
duction testifies, that the substance of the history 
which the evangelist was about to write, was al- 
ready beheved by Christians ; that it was believed 
upon the declarations of eye-witnesses and minis- 
ters of the word ; that it formed the account of 
their religion, in which Christians were instructed ; 
that the ofiice which the historian proposed to 
himself, was to trace each particular to its origin, 
and to fix the certainty of many things which the 
reader had before heard of. In Saint John's Gos- 
pel, the same point appears hence, that there are 
some principal facts to which the historian refers, 
but which he does not relate. A remarkable in- 
stance of this kind is the ascension, which is not 
mentioned by Saint John in its place, at the con- 
clusion of his history, but which is plainly referred 
to in the following words of the sixth chapter * : 

What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend 
up where he was before ?" And still more posi- 
tively in the words which Christ, according to our 
evangelist, spoke to Mary after his resurrection, 

Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my 
Father ; but go unto my brethren, and say unto 
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father ; 
unto my God and your Godf." This can only be 
accounted for by the supposition that Saint John 
wrote under a sense of the notoriety of Christ's 
ascension, amongst those by whom his book was 



* Also John iii. 13. ; and xvi. 18. 



t John XX. 17, 



80 THfc EVIDENCES 

likely to be read. The same account must also be 
given of Saint Matthew's omission of the same im- 
portant fact. The thing was very well known ; and 
it did not occur to the historian that it was neces- 
sary to add any particulars concerning it. It 
agrees also with his solution, and with no other, 
that neither Matthew nor John dispose of the per- 
son of our Lord in any manner whatever. Other 
intimations in Saint John's Gospel of the then 
general notoriety of the story are the following : — 
His manner of introducing his narrative (ch. i. 
ver. 15.) ''John bare witness of him, and cried, 
saying," — evidently presupposes that his readers 
knew who John was. His rapid parenthetical re- 
ference to John's imprisonment, " for John was 
not yet cast into prison*," could only come from a 
writer whose mind was in the habit of considering 
John's imprisonment as perfectly notorious. The 
description of Andrew, by the addition of '* Simon 
Peters brother 'f," takes it for granted that Simon 
Peter was well known. His name had not been 
mentioned before. The evangelist's noticing the 
prevailing naisconstruction of a discourse which 
Christ held with the beloved disciple, proves that 
the characters and the discourse were already 
public : and the observation which these instances - 
afford is of equal validity for the purpose, whoever 
were the authors of the histories. 



* John iii. 24. 



+ Chap. i. 40. 



I Chap, xxi, 24, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



81 



These four circumstances, first, The recog- 
nition of the account in its principal parts, by a 
series of succeeding writers; secondly, The total 
absence of any account of the origin of the reli- 
gions substantially different from ours ; thirdly, 
The early and extensive prevalence of rites and 
institutions which result from our account ; 
fourthly, Our account bearing, in its construction, 
proof that it is an account of facts, which were 
known and believed at the time, — are sufficient, 
I conceive, to support an assurance that the story 
which we have now, is, in general, the story which 
Christians had at the beginning. I say in general ; 
by which term I mean, that it is the same in its 
texture and in its principal facts. For instance, 
I make no doubt, for the reasons above slated, but 
that the resurrection of the Founder of the religion 
was always a part of the Christian story ; nor can 
a doubt of this remain upon the mind of any one 
who reflects that the resurrection is, in some form 
or other, asserted, referred to, or assumed, in every 
Christian writing, of every description, which hath 
come down to us. 

And if our evidence stopped here, we should 
have a strong case to offer ; for we should have to 
allege. That, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, a cer- 
tain number of persons set about an attempt of es- 
tablishing a new religion in the world ; in the pro- 
secution of which purpose they voluntarily encoun- 
tered great dangers, undertook great labours, sus- 
tained great sufferings, all for a miraculous story, 
which they published wherever they came ; and 
jthat the resurrection of a dead man, whom, during 



82 



THE EVIDENCES 



his life, they had followed and accompanied, was a 
constant part of this story. 

I know nothing in the above statement which 
can, with any appearance of reason, be disputed ; 
and I know nothing, in the history of the human 
species, similar to it. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



83 



CHAPTER VIII. 

There is satisfactory Evidence that many, pro- 
Jessing to be original JVitnesses of the Chris- 
tian Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours, 
Dangers, and Sufferings, ^voluntarily under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts which they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their 
Belief of the Truthof those Accounts ; and that 
they also submitted, from the same Motives, t& 
7iexv Rules of Conduct, 

TPhat the story which we now have is, in the 
main, the story which the apostles published, is, i 
think, nearly certain, from the considerations which 
have been proposed ; but whether, when we come 
to the paiticulars and the detail of the narrative, 
the historical books of the New Testament be de- 
serving of credit as histories, so that a fact ought 
to be accounted true, because it is found m them ; 
or whether they are entided to be so considered, as 
representing the accounts which, true or false, the 
apostles published ; — whether their authority, ia 
either of these views, can be trusted to, is a point 
which necessarily depends upon what we know of 
the books, and of their authors. 

Now, in treating of this part of our argument, 
the first and most material observation upon the 
subject is. That such was the situation of the au- 
thors to whom the four Gospels are ascribed, 
that, if any one of the four be genuine, it is suffi- 
cient for our purpose. The received author of 
the first, was an original apostle and emissary of 
the religion. The received author of the second, 

G 2 



84 



THE EVIDENCES 



was an inhabitant of Jerusalem at the time, to 
whose house the apostles were wont to resort, and 
himself an attendant upon one of the most emi- 
nent of that nnn:iber. The received author of the 
third, was a stated companion and fellow-travel- 
ler of the most active of all the teachers of the 
religion, and, in the course of his travels, frequent- 
ly in the society of the original apostles. The re- 
ceived aiithor of the fourtli, as well as of the first, 
was one of these apostles. No stronger evidence 
of the truth of a history can arise from the situa- 
tion of the historian, than what is here offered. 
The authors of all the histories lived at the time 
and upon the spot. The authors of two of the 
histories were present at many of the scenes 
which they describe; eye-witnesses of the facts^ 
ear - witnesses of the discourses ; writing from 
personal knowledge and recollection; and, what 
strengthens their testimony, writing upon a sub- 
ject in which their minds were deeply engaged, 
and in which, as they must have been very fre- 
quently repeating the accounts to others, the pas- 
sages of the history would be kept continually 
alive in their memory. Whoever reads the Gos- 
pels (and they ought to be read for this particu- 
lar purpose) will find in them not merely a gene- 
ral affirmation of miraculous powers, but detailed 
circumstantial accounts of miracles, with specifi- 
cations of time, place, and persons; and these ac- 
counts many and various. In the Gospels, there- 
fore, which bear the names of Matthew and 
John, these narratives, if they really proceeded 
from these men, must either be true, as far as the 
fidelity of human recollection is usually to be de- 
pended upon, that is, must be true in substance 
. and in their principal parts (which is sufficient 
for the purpose of proving a supernatural agency) 
or they must be wilful and meditated falsehoods. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



S3 



Yet the writers who fabricated and uttered these 
falsehoods, if they be such, are of the number of 
those who, unless the whole contexture of the 
Christian story be a dream, sacrificed their ease 
and safety in the cause, and for a purpose the 
most inconsistent that is possible with dishonest 
intentions. They were villains for no end but to 
teach honesty, — and martyrs without the least 
prospect of honour or advantage. 

The Gospels which bear the names of Mark and 
Luke, although not the narratives of eye - wit- 
nesses, are, if genuine, removed from that only 
by one degree. They are the narratives of con- 
temporary writers, of writers themselves mixing 
with the business ; one of the two probably living 
in the place which was the principal scene of ac- 
tion; both living in habits of society and corres- 
pondence with those who had been present at 
the transactions which they relate. The latter 
of them accordingly tells us (and with apparent 
sincerity, because he tells it without pretending 
to personal knowledge, and without claiming for 
his work greater authority than belonged to it) 
that the things which were believed amongst 
Christians, came from those who, from the be- 
ginning, were eye-witnesses and ministers of the 
word; that he had traced accounts up to their 
source; and that he was prepared to instruct his 
reader in the certainty of the things which he re- 
lated *. Very few histories lie so close to their 
facts; very few liistorians are so nearly connect- 
ed with t:ie subject of their narrative, or posses? 
such means of authentic information, as these. 



* Why should not the candid and modest Preface of this hhio-- 
rian be believed, as well as that which Dion Cassins prefixes to the 
Life of Commodus? " These things and the following 1 write not 
from the report of others, but Irom my own knowledge and ob- 
servation/' I see reason to doubt but that botli passages 
scribe truly enough the situation of fhe authors. 



THE EVIDENCES 



The situation of the writers applies to ttie truth 
of the facts v^hich they record ; but, at present, 
we use their testimony to a point somewhat short 
of this, namely, That the facts recorded in the Gos- 
pels, whether true or false, are the facts, and the 
sort of facts, which the original preachers of the 
religion alleged. Strictly speaking, I am con- 
cerned only to show, that what the Gospels con- 
tain is the same as what the apostles preached. 
Now, how stands the proof of this point? A set 
of men went about the world, publishing a story 
composed of miraculous accounts (for miraculous, 
from the very nature and exigency of the case, 
they must have been) ; and, upon the strength of 
these accounts, called upori mankind to quit the 
religions in which they had been educated, and 
to take up from thenceforth a new system of opi- 
nions, and new rules of action. What is more 
in attestation of these accounts, that is, in support 
of an institution of which these accounts were the 
foundation, is, the same men voluntarily exposed 
themselves to harrassing and perpetual labours, 
dangers, and sufferings. We want to know what 
these accounts were. We have the particulars, 
i e. many particulars, from two of their own 
number. We have them from an attendant of 
one of the number, and who, there is reason to 
believe, was an inhabitant of Jerusalem at the 
time. We have them from a fourth writer, who 
accompanied the most laborious missionary of the 
institution in his travels ; who, in tjie course of 
these travels, was frequently brought into the so- 
ciety of the rest ; and who, let it be observed, 
begins his narrative by telling us. That he is about 
to relate the things which had been delivered by 
those who were ministers of the word, and eye- 
V; itnesses of the fact. I do not know what in- 
formation "can be more satisfactory than this : ^ — 



OF CHRISTIANITY. o7 

we may, perhaps, perceive the force and value of 
it more sensibly, if we reflect how requiring we 
should have been if we had wanted it. Suppos- 
ing it to be sufficiently proved that the religion 
now professed among us, owed its original to the 
preaching and ministry of a number of men, 
who, about eighteen centuries ago, set forth in 
the world a new system of religious opinions, 
founded upon certain extraordinary things which 
they related of a wonderful person who had ap- 
peared in Judea; suppose it to be also sufficiently 
proved, that, in the course and prosecution of 
their ministry, these men had subjected them- 
selves to extreme hardships, fatigue, and peril; 
but suppose the accounts which they published 
had not been committed to writing till sonie ages 
after their times, or at least that no histories but 
what had been composed some ages afterwards 
had reached our hands, we should have said, and 
with reason. That we were willing to believe these 
men under the circumstances in which they de- 
livered their testimony, but that we did not, at 
this day, know with sufficient evidence what their 
testimony was. Had we received the particulars 
of it from any of their own number, — from any of 
those who lived and conversed with them, — from 
any of their hearers, or even from any of their 
contemporaries, — w^e should have had something 
to rely upon. Now, if our books be genuine, we 
have all these. We have the very species of in- 
formation which, as it appears to me, our ima- 
gination would have carved out for us, if it had 
been wanting. 

But I have said, That, if 0711^ one of the four 
Gospels be genuine, we have not only direct hiK 
torical testimony to the point we contend for, 
but testimony which, so far as that point is con- 
cerned, cannot reasonably be rejected,' If the first 



88 



fllE EVIDENCES 



Gospel was really written by Matthew, we have 
the narrative of one of the number, from which 
to judge what were the miracles, and the kind of 
miracles, which the apostles attributed to Jesus. 
Although, for argument's sake, and only for argu- 
nient's sake, we should allow that this Gospel had 
been erroneously ascribed to Matthew; yet, if 
the Gospel of Saint John be genuine, the obser- 
vation holds with no less strength. Again, 
Although the Gospels both of Matthew and John 
could be supposed to be spurious, yet, if the Gos- 
pel of Saint Luke was truly the composition of 
that person, or of any person, be his name what it 
might, who was actually in the situation in which 
the author of that Gospel professes himself to have 
been ; or if the Gospel which bears the name of 
Mark really proceeded from him, we still, even 
upon the lowest supposition, possess the accounts 
of one writer at least, who was not only contem- 
porary with the apostles, but associated with them 
in their ministry ; which authority seems sufficient, 
when the question is simply What it was which 
these apostles advanced. 

I think it material to have this well noticed. The 
New Testament contains a great number of dis- 
tinct writings, the genuineness of any one of which 
is almost sufficient to prove the truth of the reli- 
gion : it contains, however, four distinct histories ; 
the genuineness of any one of which is perfectly 
sufficient. If, therefore, we must be considered as 
encountering the risk of error in assigning the au- 
thors of our books, we are entitled to the advan- 
tage of so many separate probabilities ; and al- 
though it should appear that some evangelists had 
seen and used each others works, this discovery, 
while it subtracts indeed from their character as tes- 
timonies strictly independent, diminishes, I con- 



OF CHRISTIAN ITr. 



8^ 



eeive, little either their separate authority (by 
^ hich I mean the authority of any one that is ge- 
nuine) or their mutual confirmation ; for, let the 
most disadvantageous supposition possible be made 
concerning them, — let it be allowed, what I 
should have no great difficulty in admitting, That 
Mark compiled his history almost entirely from 
those of Matthew and Luke, — and let it also, for 
a, moment, be supposed that these histories were 
not, in fact, written by Matthew and Luke ; yet, if 
ic be true that Mark, a contem[)orary of the apos- 
tles, living in habits of society with the apostles, 
a fellow-traveller and fellow-labourer with some of 
them ; if, I say, it be true that this person made 
the compilation, it follows, that the writings from 
which he made it existed in the times of the apos- 
tles ; and not only so, but that they were then in 
such esteem and credit, that a companion of the 
apostles formed a history out of them. Let the 
Gospel of Mark be called An Epitome of that of 
Matthew ; — if a person, in the situation in which 
Mark is described to have been, actually made the 
epitome, it affords the strongest possible attesta- 
tion to the character of the original. 

Again, Parallelisms in sentences, in words, and 
in the order of words, have been traced out be- 
tween the Gospel of IMatthew^ and that of Luke ; 
which concurrence cannot easily be explained, 
otherwise than by supposing either that Luke had 
consulted Matthevv's history, or, what appears to 
me in nowise credible, that minutes of some of 
Christ's discourses, as well as brief memoirs xyi 
some passages of his life, had been committed to 
writing at the time ; and that such written accounts 
had, by both authors, been occasionally admitted 
into their histories. Either supposition is perfecdy 
consistent with the acknowledged formation of 



90 



THE EVIDENCES 



Saint Luke's narrative, who professes not to write 
as an eye - witness, but to have investigated the 
original of every account which he delivers : in 
other words, to have collected them from such do- 
cuments and testimonies as he, who had the best 
opportunities of making enquiries, judged to be 
authentic ; — therefore, allowing that this writer 
also, in some instances, borrowed from the Gospel 
which we call Matthew's, — and once more allow- 
ing, for the sake of stating the argument, that that 
Gospel was not the production of the author to 
Vv^hom we ascribe it, — yet still we have, in Saint 
Luke s Gospel, a history given by a writer imme- 
diately connected with the transaction, with the 
witnesses of it, with the persons engaged in it, and 
composed from materials which that person thus 
situated deemed to be safe sources of intelligence: 
in other words, whatever supposition be made con- 
cerning any or all the other Gospels, if Saint Luke's 
Gospel be genuine, we have in it a credible evi- 
dence of the point which we maintain. 

The Gospel according to Saint John appears to 
be, and is on all hands allowed to be, an Inde- 
pendent Testimony, strictly and properly so called. 
Notwithstanding, therefore, any connection, or 
supposed connection, between some of the Gospels, 
I again repeat, what I before said, That if any one 
of the four be genuine, we have, in that one, strong 
reason, from the character and situation of the 
writer, to believe that we possess the accounts 
which the original emissaries of the religion de- 
livered. 

IL In treating of the written evidences of 
Christianity, next to their separate, we are to con- 
sider their aggregate authority. Now, there is in 
the evangelic history a cumulation of testimony 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



91 



■which belongs hardly to any other history, but 
which our habitual mode of reading the Scriptures 
sometimes causes ns to overlook. When a passage, 
in anywise relating to the history of Christ, is read 
to us out of the Epistle of Clemens Romanus, 
the Epistles of Ignatius, of Polycarp, or from any 
other writing of that age, we are immediately sen- 
sible of the confirmation which it affords to the 
Scripture account. Here is a new witness. Now, 
if we had been accustomed to read the Gospel of 
Matthew alone, and had known that of Luke only 
as the generality of Christians know the writings of 
ihe apostolical fathers, that is, had known that such 
a writing was extant and acknowleds^ed, — when 
we came, for the first time, to look into what it 
contained, and found many of the facts which 
Matthew recorded, recorded alj-o there, many other 
facts of a similar nature added, and throughout the 
whole work the same general series of transactions 
stated, and the same 2;eneral character of the per- 
son w'ho was the subject of the history preserved, 
1 apprehend that we should feel our minds strongly 
impressed by this discovery of fresh evidence. We 
should feel a renewal of the same sentiment in first 
reading the Gospel of Saint John. That of Saint 
Mark perhaps would strike us as an abridgement 
of the history with which we were already ac- 
quainted ; but; we should naturally reflect, that if 
that history w^as abridged by such a person as 
Mark, or by any person of so early an age, it af- 
forded one of the highest possible attestations to 
the value of the work. This successive disclosure 
of proof would leave us assured, that there must 
have been at least some reality in a story which not 
one, but man}^, had taken in hand to commit to 
writing. The very existence of four separate his- 
tories would satisfy us that the subject had a foun- 



THE EVIDENCES 



elation ; and when, amidst the variety which the 
different information of the different writers had 
supplied to their accounts, or which their different 
choice and judgment in selecting their materials had 
produced, we observed man}^ facts to stand the 
same in all ; of these facts, at least, we should 
conclude that they Were fixed in their credit and 
publicity. If, after this, we should come to the 
knowledge of a disiinct history, and that also of the 
same age with the rest, taking up the subject where 
the others had left it, and c nrying on a narrative 
of the effecis produced in the world by the extra- 
ordinary causes of which we had already been in- 
formed, and whicii effects subsist at this day, we 
should think the reality of the original story in no 
little degree established by this supplement. If sub- 
sequent enquiries should bring to our knowledge, 
one after another, letters written by some of the 
principal agents in the business, upon the business, 
and during the time of their activity and concern 
in it, assuming all along and recognizing the original 
stoi'y, agitating the questions that arose out of it, 
pressing ihe obligations which resulted from it, 
sivin^ advice and directions to those who acted 
upon it, I conceive that we should find in every 
one of these a still further support to the conclu- 
sion we had formed. At present, the weight of this 
successive confirmation is, in a great measure, un- 
perceived by us. The evidence does not appear to 
us what it is ; for being from our infancy accus- 
tomed to regard the New Testament as one book, we 
see in it only one testimony. The whole occurs to 
us as a single evidence ; and its different parts, not 
as distinct attestations, but as different portions only 
of the same ; yet in this conception of the subject 
we are certainly mistaken ; for the very discrepan- 
cie.s amontrst the several documents \¥hich form oui^ 



OF CHRISTIANITY. §i 

volume, prove, if all other proof was wanting, 
that in their original composition they were separate, 
and most of them independent productions. 

If we dispose our ideas in a different order, the 
matter stands thus : — Whilst the transaction was 
recent, and the original witnesses were at hand to 
relate it ; and whilst the aposdes were busied in 
preaching and travelling, in collectiug disciples, in 
forming and regulating societies of converts, in sup- 
porting themselves againstopposition, — whilst they 
exercised their ministry under the harrassings of 
frequent persecution, and in a state of almo t con- 
tinual alarm, it is not probable that, in this en- 
gaged, anxious, and unsettled condition of life, 
they would think immediately of writing histories 
for the information of the pubUc or of posterity*. 
But it is very probable that emergencies might 
draw from some of them occasional letters upon 
the subject of their mission to converts, or to so- 
cieties of converts, with which they were connect- 
ed ; or that they might address written discourses 
and exhortations to the disciples of the institution 
at large, which would be received and read with a 
respect proportioned to the character of the writer. 
Accounts in the mxan time would get abroad of the 
extraordinary things that had been passing, written 
with diti'erent degrees of information and correct- 
ness. The extension of the Christian society, which 
could no longer be instructed by a personal inter- 
course with the apostles, and the possible circuladon 
of imperfect or enoneous narratives, would soon 



* Tliis thought occurred tc Eusebius : " Nor were the aposiiea 
of Christ gicatiy concerned about the writing of books, being en- 
gaged ill a mote excellent ministry, which is above all human 
power." J^ccl. Hist. I. Hi, c. 21. The same consideration accounts 
also for tlie paucity ol Christian writings iii the fmt century of i,ts 
aera. 



9% THE EVIDENCES 

teach some amongst them the expediency of send- 
ing forth authentic memoirs of the life and doctrine 
of their master. When accounts appeared, autho- 
rised by the name, and credit, and situation of the 
writers, recommended or recognised by the "apostles 
and first preachers of the religion, or found to coin- 
cide with what the apostles and first preachers of 
the religion had taught, other accounts would fall 
into disuse and neglect ; whilst these, maintaining 
their reputation (as, if genuine and well founded, 
they would do) under the test of time, inquiry, and 
contradiction, might be expected to make their way 
into the hands of Christians of all countries of the 
world. 

This seems the natural progress of the business ; 
and with this the records in our possession, and 
the evidence concerning them, correspond. We 
have remaining, in the first place, many letters of 
the kind above described, which have been pre- 
served vv^th a care and fidelity answering to the 
respect with which we may suppose that such 
letters would be received. But as these letters 
were not written to prove the truth of the Chris- 
tian religion in the sense in which we regard that 
question, nor to convey information of facts, of 
which those to whom the letters were written had 
been previously informed, — we are not to look in 
them for any thing more than incidental allusions 
to the Christian history. We are able, however, 
to gather from these documents various particular 
attestations, which have been already enumerated ; 
and this is a species of written evidence, as far as it 
goes, in the highest degree satisfactory, and in 
point of time perhaps the first. But for our more 
circumstantial information, we have, in the next 
place, five direct histories, bearing the names of 
persons acquainted, by their situation, with the: 
truth of what they relate, and three of them pur- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



9^ 



porting, in the very body of the narrative, to be 
written by such persons ; of Avhich books, we know 
that some were in the hands of those who were 
contemporaries of the apostles, and that, in the 
age immediately posterior to that, they were in the 
hands, we may say, of every one, and received by 
Christians with so much respect and deference, as 
to be constantly quoted and referred to by them, 
without any doubt of the truth of their accounts. 
They were treated as such histories, proceeding 
from such authorities, might expect to be treated. 
In the preface to one of our histories, we have inti- 
mations left us of the existence of some ancient ac- 
counts which are now lost. There is nothing in 
this circumstance that can surprise us. It was to 
be expected, from the magnitude and novelty of the 
occasion, that such accounts would swarm. When 
better accounts came forth, these died away. Our 
present histories superseded others. They soon 
acquired a character, and established a reputation 
which does not appear to have belonged to any 
others : that at least can be proved concerning 
them, which cannot be proved concerning any 
other. 

But to return to the point which led to these 
reflections^ By considering our records in either 
of the two views in which we have represented 
them, we shall perceive that we possess a collec- 
tion of proofs, and not a naked or solitary testi- 
mony ; and that the written evidence is of such a 
kind, and come to us in such a state, as the natural 
order and progress of things, in the infancy of the 
institution, might be expected to produce. 

III. The genuineness of the historical books 
of the New Testament is undoubtedly a point of 
importance, because the strength of their evidence 



96 



THE EVIDEXCES 



is augmented by our knowledge of the situation 
of their authors, their relation to the subject, and 
the part which they sustained in the transaction ; 
and the testimonies which we are able to produce 
compose a firm ground of persuasion, that the 
Gospels were written by the persons whose names 
they bear. Nevertheless, I must be allowed to 
state, that, to the argument which I am endeavour- 
ing to maintain, this point is not essential ; I mean, 
so essential as that the fate of the argument depends 
upon it. The question before us is. Whether the 
Gospels exhibit the story which the apostles and 
first emissaries of the religion published, and jTor 
w^hich they acted and suffered in the manner in 
which, for some miraculous story or other, they 
did act and suffer? Now, let us suppose that we 
possessed no other information concerning these 
books than that they were written by early dis- 
ciples of Christianity ; that they were known and 
read during the time, or near the time, of the 
original apostles of the religion ; that by Christians 
whom the apostles instructed, by societies of Chris^- 
tians which the apostles founded, these books were 
received (by which term received, I mean that they 
were believed to contain authentic accounts of the 
transaction upon which the religion rested, and ac- 
counts which were accordingly used, repeated, and 
relied upon) this reception would be a valid proof 
that these books, whoever were the authors of 
them, must have accorded with what the apostles 
taught. A reception by the first race of Chris- 
tians, is evidi^nce that they agreed with what the 
first teachers of the religion delivered. In parti- 
cular, if they had not agreed with what the apostles 
themselves preached, how could they have gained 
credit in churches and societies which the apostles 
established ? 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 9^ 

Now, the fact of their early existence, and not 
only of their existence but their reputation, is made 
out by some ancient testimonies which do not 
happen to specify the names of the writers ; add to 
which, what hath been ah*eady hinted, that two 
out of the four Gospels contain averments in the 
body of the history, which, though they do not dis- 
close the names, fix the time and situation of the 
authors, that one was written by an eye-witness 
of the sufferings of Christ ; the other by a contem- 
porary of the apostles. In the Gospel of Saint 
John (xix. 35.) after describing the crucifixion, 
"with the particular circumstance of piercing Christ's 
side with a spear, the historian adds, as for himself, 
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is 
true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye 
might believe." — Again (xxi. 24.) after relating a 
conversation which passed between Peter and the 
disciple," as it is there expressed, " whom Jesus 
loved," it is added, " This is the disciple which 
lestifieth of these things, and wrote these things. ' 
This testimony, let it be remarked, is not the less 
worthy of regard, because it is, in one view, im- 
perfect. The name is not mentioned ; which, if a 
fraudulent purpose had been intended, would have 
been done. The third of our present Gospels pur- 
ports to have been written by the person vvho wrote 
the Acts of the Apostles; in which latter history, or 
rather latter part of the same history, the author, 
by using m various places the first person plurals- 
declares himself to have been a contemporary of 
all, and a companion of one of the original preaciierb 
of the religion, 



i-r 



98 



CHAPTER IX. 

There is satisfactoi^y Evidence that many, pre-* 
fessing to be original TVit7iesses of the Chris- 
tian Miracles, passed their Lives in Labours, 
Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts which they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of those Accounts ; and that they also sub- 
mitted, fr^om the same Motives, to 7iezv Rules of 
Conduct, 

Of the Authenticity of the Scriptu?'es, 

J^J OT forgetting, therefore, what credit is due to 
the evangelic history, supposing even any one of 
the four Gospels to be genuine ; what credit is due 
to the Gospels, even supposing nothing to be knov^ n 
concerning them but that they were written by 
early disci pies of the religion, and received with 
deference by early Christian churches ; more espe- 
cially not forgetting what credit is due to the Nev/ 
Testament in its capacity of cumulative evidence, — 
we now proceed to state the proper and distinct 
proofs, which show not only the general value of 
these records, but their ^ecific authority, and the 
high probability there is that they actually came 
from the persons whose nances they bear< 

There are, however, a few preliminary reflec- 
tions, by which we may draw up with more regu- 
larity to the propositions upon which the close and 
particular discussion of the subject depends. Of 
w hich nature are the following ; — 

I. We are able to produce a great number of 
ancient manuscripts ^ found in many different coun- 



OF CHRISTIANITY* 



99 



tries, and in countries widely distant from each 
other, all of iheni anterior to the art of printing; 
some certainly seven or eight hundred years old ; 
and some which have been preserved probably 
above a thousand years*. We have also many 
ancient versions of these books, and some of them 
into languages which are not at present, nor for 
many ages have been, spoken in any part of the 
world. The existence of these manuscripts and 
versions proves that the Scriptures were not the 
production of any modern contrivance. It does 
away also the uncertainty which hangs over such 
publications as the works, real or pretended, of 
Ossian and Rowley, in which the editors are chal- 
lenged to produce their manuscripts, and to show 
where they obtained their copies. The number of 
manuscripts, far exceeding those of any other book> 
and their wide dispersion, affords an argument, in 
some measure to the senses, that the Scriptures 
anciently, in like manner as at this day, were more 
read and sought after than any other books, and 
that also in many different countries. The greatest 
part of spurious Christian writings are utterly lost ; 
the rest preserved by some single manuscript. 
There is weight also in Dr. Bentley's observation, 
that the New Testament has suffered less injury by 
the errors of transcribers, than the works of any 
profane author of the same size and antiquity ; 
that is, there never w^as any writing, in the preserva- 
tion and purity of which the world was so interested 
or so careful. 

IL An argument of great weii^ht with those who 
are judges of the proofs upon which it is founded, 



* The Alexandrian manuscript, now in the British Museum, wqr 
Written probablv in the fourth or Bi'th century. 



100 



THE EVIDENCES 



and capable, through their testiaiony, of being ad^ 
dressed to every understanding, is that which arises 
from the style and language of the New Testament. 
It is just such a language as might be expected 
from the apostles, from persons of their age and in 
their situation, and from no other persons. It is 
the style neither of classic authors, nor of the an- 
cient Christian Fathers, but Greek coming from 
men of Hebrew origin ; abounding, that is, with 
Hebraic and Syriac idioms, such as would naturally 
be found in the writings of men who used a lan- 
guage spoken indeed where they lived, but not the 
common dialect of the country. This happy pe- 
culiarity is a strong prpof of the genuineness of these 
writings ; for who should forge them ? The Chris- 
tian fathers were for the most part totally ignorant 
of Hebrew, and therefore were not likely to insert- 
Hebraisms and Syriasms into their writings. The 
few who had the knowledge of the Hebrew, as 
Justin Martyr, Origen, and Epiphanius, wrote in a 
language which bears no resemblance to that of 
the New Testament. The Nazarenes, who under- 
stood Hebrew, used chiefly, perhaps almost en- 
tirely, the Gospel of Saint Matthew, and there- 
fore cannot be suspected of forging the rest of the 
Sacred Writings. The argument, at any rate, 
proves the antiquity of these books ; that they be- 
longed to the age of the apostles ; that they could 
be composed indeed in no other 

in. Why should we question the genuineness of 
these books ? Is it for that they contain accounts 
of supernatural events? I apprehend that this, at 
the bottom, is the real though secret cause of our 



* Sec tliis argument stated more at large in Michael's Introduc- 
tion (Marsh's trauslatioii)Yol. i. c. ii, sect. 10. from whidi these ok - 
servations are taken. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



101 



hesitation about them ; for, had the writings in- 
scribed with the names of Matthew and John re- 
lated nothing but ordinary history, there would 
have been no more doubt whether these Vvritings 
were theirs, than there is concerning the acknow- 
ledged works of Josephus or Philo ; that is, there 
would have been no doubt at all. Now it ought 
to be considered that this reason, however it may 
apply to the credit which is given to a writer's 
judgment or veracity, affects the question of ge- 
nuineness very indu^ectly. The works of Bede 
exhibit many wonderful relations ; but who, for 
that reason, doubts that they were written by Bede ? 
The same of a multitude of otlier authors. To 
which may be added, that we ask no more for our 
books than what w-e allow to other books in some 
sort similar to ours ; we do not deny the genuine- 
ness of the Koran ; we admit that the history of 
Apollonius Tyanaeus, purporting to be written by 
Philostratus, was really written by Phiiostratus. 

IV. If it had been an easy thing in the early 
times of the institution to have forced Christian 
w ritings, and to have obtained currency and recep: 
tion to the forgeries, we should have had many 
appearing in the name of Christ himself. No 
writings would have been received with so much 
avidity and respect as these ; consequently, none 
afibrded so great temptation to foiigery ; — yet have 
we heard but of one attempt of this sort deserving 
of the smallest notice : that in a piece of a very, 
few lines, and so far from succeeding, I mean from 
obtaining acceptance and reputation in anywise 
similar to that which can be proved to have attend- 
ed the books of the New Testament, that it is not 
so much as mentioned by any writer of the three 
first centuries. The learned reader need not be 
informed that I mean the epistle of Christ to Ab- 



THE EVIDENCES 



garus, king of Edessa, found at present in the 
work of Eusebius*, as a piece acknowledged by 
him, though not without considerable doubt whe- 
ther the w hole passage be not an interpolation ; as 
it is most certain that, after the publication of Eu- 
sebius's work, this epistle was universally re- 
jected f , 

V. If the ascription of the Gospels to their re- 
spective authors had been arbitrary or conjectural, 
they would have been ascribed to more eminent 
men. This observation holds concerning the three 
first Gospels, the reputed authors of which were 
enabled, by their situation, to obtain true intelli- 
gence, and were likely to deliver an honest account 
of what they knew ; but were persons not distin- 
guished in ihe history by extraordinary marks of 
notice or commendation. Of the apostles, I hardly 
know any of whom less is said than of Matthew, or 
whojn the little that is said is less calculated to 
magnify his character. Of Mark, nothing is said 
in the Gospels ; and what is said of any person of 
that name in the Acts, and in the Epistles, in no. 
part bestows praise or eminence upon him. The 
name of Luke is mentioned only in St. PauFs 
Epistles J, and that very transiently. The judg- 
ment, therefore, which assigned these writings to 



Hist. Eccl. lib i. c. 15. 

t Aiigiistiu, A. D. 395. (De Coiisens Evang. c. 34.) had heai'd 
that tl]ePag:aiis pretended to be possessed of ah epistle from Christ 
to Peter and Paul; but he had never seen it ; and appears to doubt 
of the existence of any such piece, either genuine or spurious. N» 
other ancient writer mentions it. He also, and he alone notices, 
and that in order to condemn it, an epistle ascribed to Christ by the 
Manichees, A. D. 270, and a short hjniu attributed to him by the 
Priscillianists, A. D. 378 (cont. Faust. Man. iib. xxviii. c. 4.) The 
lateness of the writer who notices these things, the manner in whick 
he notices them, and above all, the silenceof every preceding writer^ 
jender them unworthy of consideration. 

$ Col. iv. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 11. Philem.24. 



OF fJHJlISTIANyTY. 

these authors, proceeded, it may be presumed, 
upon proper knowledge and evidence, and not 
ypon a voluntary choice of names. 

VI. Christian writers and Christian churches 
appear to have soon arrived at a very general agree- 
ment upoa the subject, and that without the inter- 
position of any public authority. When the diver- 
sity of opinion which prevailed, and prevails arnong 
Christians, in other points is considered, their con^ 
currence ijci the canon of Scripture is remarkable, 
and of great weight, especially as it seems to have 
been the result of private ar)d free inquiry. We 
have no knowledge of any inference of authority in 
the question before the council of Laodicea In the 
year 363. Probably the decree of this council 
rather declared than regulated the publicjudgment, 
or more properly speaking, the judgment of some 
neighbouring qhurches ; the council itself consisting 
of no more than thirty or forty bishops of Lydia 
and the adjoining countries Nor does its au- 
thority seem to have extended farther ; for we find 
numerous Christian writers, after this time, dis- 
cussing the question, " What books were entitled 
to be received as Scripture ?" with great freedom, 
upon proper grounds of evidence, and without any 
reference to the decision at Laodicea. 



^ Lardner, Cred. vol. \iii. p. 291; et setj; 



104 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER X. 

Of the Authenticity of the Scriptures, 

T'hese considerations are not to be neglected ; 
but of an argument concerning the genuineness of 
ancient writings, the substance, undoubtedly, and 
strength is ancient testimony. 

'This testimony it is necessary to exhibit some- 
what in detail ; for when Christian advocates merely 
tell us that we have the same reasoii for believing 
the Gospels to be written by the evangelists whose 
names they bear, as we have for believing the 
Commentaries to be Cagsar's, the ^neid Vii^gii's, 
or the Orations Cicero's, they content themselves 
with an imperfect representation. They state no- 
thing more than what is true ; but they do not 
state the truth correctly. In the number, variety, 
and early date of our testimonies, we far exceed 
^11 other ancient books : for one which the most 
cielebrated work of the most celebrated Greek or 
Roman writer can allege, we produce many. But 
then it is more requisite in our books than in 
theirs, to separate and distinguish them from spu- 
rious competitors. The result, I am convinced, 
w ill be satisfactory to every fair inquirer ; but this 
circumstance renders an inquiry necessary. 

In a Vvork, however, like the present, there is a 
difficulty in finding a place for evidence of this 
kind. To pursue the detail of proofs throughout, 
would be to transcribe a great part of Dr. Lardner's 
eleven octavo volumes : to leave the argument 
without proofs, is to leave it without effect ; for 
tlje persuasion produced by this species of evidence. 



eF CHRISTIANITY, 105 

depends upon a view and induction of the parti- 
culars which compose it. 

The method which I propose to myself is, first, 
to place before the reader, in one view, the propo- 
sitions which comprise the several heads of our 
testimony, and afterwards to repeat the same pro- 
positions in so many distinct Sections, with the ne- 
cessary authorities subjoined to each*. 

The following then are the allegations upon the 
subject, which are capable of being established by 
proof: 

I. That the historical books of the New Testa- 
ment, meaning thereby the Four Gospels and the 
Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded to, by 
a series of Christian writers, beginning with those 
who were contemporary with the apostles, or who 
immediately followed them, and proceeded inclose 
or regular succession from their time to the present. 

II. That when they were quoted, or alluded to, 
they are quoted or alluded to with peculiar respect, 
as books siti generis ; as possessing an authority 
which belonged to no other books, and as conclu- 
sive in all questions and controversies among Chris- 
tians. 

nr. That they were, in very early times, col- 
lected into a distinct volume, 

iV. That they were distinguished by appropriate 
names and titles of respect. 

V. That they were publicly read and expounded 
in the religious assemblies of the early Christians. 



* The reader, v, hen he lias the piopositioiis before him, will ob- 
serve that the argument, if ho sJiould omit the scclious, proceeds 
eoimectedly from this point. 



106 THE EVIDENCES 

VI. That commentaries were written upon them^, 
liarmonies formed out of them, different copies 
(^arefully collated, and version? pf them iflade ipto 
different language^. 

VII. That they were received by Ciiristians of 
different sects, by many heretics as well as catho- 
lics, and usually appealed to by both sides in the 
controversies which arose in those days. 

VIII. That the Four Gospels, the Acts of the 
Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint Paul, the first 
Epistle of John, and the first of Peter, were receiv- 
ed without doubt, by those who doubted concern-^ 
ing the other books which are included in our pre- 
sent canon. 

IX. That the Gospels were attacked by the early 
adversaries of Christianity^ as books containing the 
accounts upon which the religion was founded. 

X. That formal catalogues of authentic Scrip- 
tures were published ; in all of which our present 
Sacred Histories were included. 

XI. That these propositions cannot be affirmed 
of any other books claiming to be books of Scrip- 
ture ; by which are meant these books which are 
commonly called Apocryphal Books of th^ I^e\y 
Testament. 



OF CHllISTIANrTY". 



SECTION I. 

The Historical Books of theNexv Testament ^ mean- 
ing therehif the Four Gospels and the Acts of 
the Apostles, are quoted, or allwied to, by a se- 
ries of Christian W riters, beginning zvith those 
who zvere contemporary zvith the Apostles^ or zvho 
immediately folloxved them, and proceeding in 
close and regular succession from their Time toi 
the Present, 

X^H F. medium of proof stated in this proposition, 
is, of all others, the most unquestionable, the least 
liable to any practices of fraud, and is not dimi- 
nished by the lapse of ages. Bishop Burnet, in 
the History of his own Times, inserts various ex- 
tracts from Lord Clarendon's History. One such 
insertion is a proof that Lord Clarendon's History 
was extant at the time when Bishop Burnet wrote, 
that it had been read by Bishop Burnet, that it was 
received by Bishop Burnet as a work of Lord 
Clarendon's, and also regarded by him as an 
authentic account of the transactions which it re* 
lates ; and it will be a proof of these points a 
thousand years hence, or as long as the qooks 
exist, Quintilian having quoted as Cicero's ^, that 
well-known trait of dissembled vanity, — 

^' Si quid est in me ingenii, Judices, quod seiitio quam sit exi- 
guuai 

the quotation would be strong evidence, were there 
any doubt that the oration, which opens with this 
address, actually came from Cicero's pen. These 



* Quint, lib. xl c. i 



108 



THE EVIDExVCES 



instances, however simple, may serve to point out 
to a reader who is little accustomed to such re- 
searches, the nature and value of the argument. 

The testimonies which we have to bring forward 
under this proposition are the following : — 

I. There is extant an epistle ascribed to Bar- 
nabas % the companion of Paul. It is quoted as 
the epistle of Barnabas, by Clement of Alexandria, 
A. D. 194 ; by Origen, A. D. 230. It is mention- 
ed by Eusebius, A. D. 315, and by Jerome, A. D. 
392, as an ancient work in their time bearing the 
name of Barnabas, and as well known and read 
amongst Christians, though not accounted a part of 
Scripture. It purports to have been written soon 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, during the cala- 
mities which followed that disaster ; and it bears 
the character of the age to which it professes to 
belong. 

In this epistle appears the following remark- 
able passage : — Let us, therefore, beware lest it 
come upon us, as it is written^ — There are many 
called, fevv chosen." From the expression as it 
is wTitten," we infer with certainty, that, at the 
time when the author of this epistle lived, there 
was a book extant, well known to Christians, and 
of authority amongst them, containing these w^ords ; 

^lany are called, few chosen." Such a book is 
our present Gospel of Saint Matthew, in which 
this text is twice found f, and is found in no other 
book now known. There is a farther observation 
to be made upon the terms of the quotation. The 



* Lardner's Cretl. edit. 1755, vol. i. p. 23, et seq. The reader 
^ ill observe iromthe refereiiee.5, that the materials oi these sections 
arc almost entirely extracted irom Dr. Lardiier's Mork; my office; 
consisted in arraDgeiiient and selectiou. 

t 31att XX. IG. ; xxii. 14. 



OF CHKISTIAyiTY. 



Vi liter of the epistle was a Jew. The phrase ''it 
is written/' was the ver^ form in which the Jews 
quoted their Scriptures. It is not probable, there- 
fore, that he would have used this phrase, and 
without qualification of any books but what had 
acquired a kind of Scriptural authority. If the 
passage remarked in this ancient writing had been 
found in one of Saint Pauls Epistles, it would 
have been esteemed by every one a high testimony 
to Saint Matthew's gospel. It ought, therefore, to 
be remembered, that the writing in which it is 
found was probably by very few years posterior to 
those of Saint Paul. 

Beside this passage, there are also in the epistle 
before us several others, in which the sentiment is 
the same with what we meet with in Saint .iMatthew's 
Gospel, and two or three in which we recognise 
the same words. In particular, the author of tlie 
epistle repeats the precept, Give to every one' 
that asketh thee * ;" and saith that Christ chose as 
his apostles, who were to preach the gospel, men 
who were gre*at sinners, that he might show that he 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance f." 

IL We are in possession of an epistle written by 
Clement, Bishop of Rome:[:, whom ancient writers, 
without any doubt or scruple, assert to have been 
the Clement whom Saint Paul mentions, Phil.iv. 3. : 

with Clement also, and other my fellow-labour- 
ers, whose names are in the book of life." This 
epistle is spoken of by the antients as an epistle 
acknowledged by all ; and, as Iren^eus well repre- 
sents its value, written by Clement, w^io had 
seen the blessed apostles, and conversed with 



* Matt. V. 42. t Chap. ix. 13, 

.t Lardncr's C;e(l. vol, i, p, C2, et seq. 



THE EVIDENCES 



them ; who had the preaching of the apostles stifl 
isouiifling in his ears, and their traditions before bis 
eyes." It is addressed to the Church of Corinth : 
and, what alone may seem almost decisive of its 
authenticity, Dion3^sius, bishop of Corinth, about 
the year 1?0, i. e. about eighty or ninety years after 
the epistle was written, bears v/itness that it had 
been wont to be read in that church from ancient 
times." 

This epistle affords, amongst others, the follow- 
ing valuable passages : — " Especially remembering 
the words of the Lord Jesus which he spake, teach- 
ing gentleness and long-suffering : for thus he said * : 
* Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy ; for- 
give, that it may be forgiven unto you ; as you do, 
so shall it be done unto you ; as you give, so shall 
it be given unto you ; as ye judge, so shall ye be 
judged ; as ye shew kindness, so shall kindness be 
shewn unto you ; with what measure ye mete, with 
the same shall it be measured to you.' By this 
command, and by these rules, let us establish our- 
selves, that we may always walk obedient to his 
holy words." 

Again : Remember the words of the Lord 
Jesus ; for he said ' Woe to that man by whom 
offences come ; it were better for him tliat he had 
not been born, than that he should offend one of 
my elect ; it were better for him that a mill-stone 
should be tied about his neck, and that he should 
be drowned in the sea, than that he should offend 
one of my little ones f.' " 

* " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.'' Matt. 
V. 7. — " Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven : give and it shall be giveil 
unto you." Luke vi. 37, 38. — '* Judge not, that ye be not judged : 
ior with that judgment ye judge ye shall be judged ; and with what 
ineasure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matt. Vii. 
1,2. 

f Matt, xviii. 6. " But whoso shall offend one of these little 
ones which believe in me. it were better for him that a mill-stone 
Were lianged about bis neck, and that he were cast into the sea." — 



CHRIStlA^'ltr. HI 

in both these passages, we perceive the high 
respect paid to the words of Christ, as recorded by 
the evangeUsts, — " Reinember the words of the. 
Lord Jesus ; — by this command, and by these rules, 
let us establish ourselves, that we may always walk 
obediently to his holy words." We perceive also 
in Clement a total unconsciousness of doubt, whe- 
ther these were the real words of Christ which are 
read as such in the Gospels* This observation in- 
deed belongs to the whole series of testimony, and 
especially to the most ancient part of it. When- 
ever any thing now read in the Gospels is met with 
in an early Christian writing, it is a;lways observed 
to stand there as acknowledged truth, i. e, to be 
introduced without hesitation, doubt, or apology. 
It is to be observed also, that as tliis epistle was 
written in the name of the Church of Rome, and 
addressed to the church of Corinth, it ought to be 
taken as exhibiting the judgment not only of Cle- 
ment, who drew up the letter, but of these churches 
themselves, at least as to the authority of the books 
referred to. 

It may be said, that, as Clement hath not used 
words of quotation, it i^ not certain that he refers 
to any book whatever. The words of Christ 
which he has put down, he might himself have 
heard from the apostles, or might have received 
through the ordinary medium of oral tradition. 
This hath been said; but that no such inference 
can be drawn from the absence of words of quota- 
tion, is proved by the three following considera- 
tions : — First, That Clement, in the very same 
manner, namely, without any mark of inference, 
uses a passage now found in the Epistle to the 

The latter part of the passage in Clement agrees more exactly with 
Luke x\ii.2.; It were better for him that a mill-stone were 
hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should 
oifend one of these little ones," 



THE EVIDENCES 



Romans which passage, from the peculiarity of 
the words which compose it, and from their order, 
it is manifest that he must have taken from the 
book. The same remark may be repeated of some 
very singular sentiments in the epistle to the He- 
brews. Secqndly, That there are many sentences 
of Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians 
standing in Clement's epistle without any sign of 
quotation, which yet certainly are quotations; be- 
cause it appears that Clement had Saint Paul's 
epistle before him, inasmuch as in one place he 
mentions it in terms too express to leave us in any 
doubt Take into your hands the epistle of the 
blessed aposde Paul." Thirdly, That this method 
of adopting words of Scripture without reference 
or acknowledgement, was, as will appear in the 
sequel, a method in general use amongst the most 
ancient Christian writers. These analogies not 
only repel the objection, but cast the presumption 
on the other side, and afford a considerable degree 
of positive proof, that the words in question have 
been borrowed from the places of Scripture in 
which we now find them. 

But lake it, if you will, the other way, that Cle- 
ment had heard these words from the apostles or 
first teachers of (Christianity, with respect to the 
precise point of our argument, ^i.z. that the Scrip- 
tures contain what the apostles taught, this suppo- 
sition may serve almost as well. 

III. Near the conclusion of the Episde to the 
Romans, Saint Paul, amongst others, sends the 
following salutation: "Salute Asyncritus, Phle- 
gon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren 
which are with them." 



* Rom. I 29, 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



US 



Of Hermas, who appears iri this catalogue of* 
Romaa Christians as contemporary with Saint 
Paul, a book bearing the name, and it is most pro- 
bable rightly is still remaining. It is called the 
Shepherd * or Pastor of Hermas. Its antiquity is 
incontestable, from the quotations of it in Irenaeus, 
A. D. 178 ; Clement of Alexandria, A. D. I94 ; 
Tertullian, A. D. 200; Origen, A. D. 230* The 
notes of time extant in the epistle itself, agree with 
its title, and with the testimonies concerning it, for 
it purports to have been written during the life -time 
of Clement. 

In this piece are tacit allusions to Saint Mat- 
thew's, Saint Luke's, and Saint John's Gospels ; that 
is to say, there are applications of thoughts and ex- 
pressions found in these Gospels, without citing 
the place or writer from which they were taken. 
In this form appear in Hermas the confessing and 
denying of Christ t ; the parable of the seed sown J ; 
the comparison of Christ's disciples to little chil- 
dren ; the saying, He that putteth away his wife, 
and marrieth another, committeth adultery <^ ;" the 
singular expression, " Having received all power 
from his Father," in probable allusion to Matt, 
xxviii. 18.; and Christ being the gate, or only 
way of coming to God, in plain allusion to John 
xiv. 6*. ; X. 7, 9. There is also a probable allusion 
to Acts V. 32. 

This piece is the representation of a vision, and 
has by many been accounted a weak and fanciful 
performance. I therefore observe, that the cha- 



* Lardners Cred. vol. i. p. 114. 
+ Matt. X. 31, 32. or Luke xii. 8, 9. 
+ Matt. xiii. 3. or Luke viii. 5. 
Lukexvi. 

I 



114 



THE EVIDENCES 



racter of the writing has little to do with the pur-' 
pose for which we adduce it. It is the age in 
which it was composed that gives the value to its 
testimony. 

IV. Ignatius, as it is testified by ancient Chris- 
tian writers, became bishop of Antioch about 
thirty-seven years after Christ's ascension ; and 
therefore, from his time, and place, and station, 
it is probable that he had known and conversed 
with many of the apostles; Epistles of Ignatius 
are referred to by Polycarp, his contemporary. 
Passages found in the epistles, now extant under 
his name, are quoted by Irenseus, A. D. 173 ; by 
Origen, A. D. 230 • and the occasion of writing the 
epistles is given at large by Eusebius and Jerome. 
What are called the Smaller Epistles of Ignatius, are 
generally deemed to be those which v/ere read by 
Ireneeus, Origen, and Eusebius 

In these epistles are various undoubted allusions 
to the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint John ; 
yet so far of the same form with those in the pre- 
ceding articles, that, hke them, they are not accom- 
panied with marks of quotation. 

Of these aiiusions the following are clear speci- 
mens : — 

MATTHEW f. 

*^ Christ was baptised of John, that all 
righteousness might be julfdkd by himr 

" Beyezvise as serpents m all things, and 
harmless as a dove,'' 



* Lardner's Cred. vol. i. p. 147. 

t iii. 15. " For thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness."^ 
xi. 16, Be ye Iberefore wise as serpt^nts, and Uarmiess a» 
doves." 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



115 



JOHN*. 

" Yet the spirit is not deceived, being from 
God ; for it knows zvhence it comes ^ and wJii- 
ther it goes'' 

He (Christ) is the doo?^ of the Father, 
by which ente?^ in Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, and the apostles, and the church." 

As to the manner of quotation, this is observ- 
able : — Ignatius, in one place, speaks of Saint 
Paul in terms of high respect, and quotes his Epistle 
to the Ephesians by 72ame; yet, in several other 
places, he borrows words and sentiments from the 
same epistle without mentioning it; which shows 
that this was his general manner of using and apply- 
ing writings then extant, and then of high autho- 
rity. 

Y. Polycarp f had been taught by the apostles ; 
had conversed with many who had seen Christ; 
was also by the apostles appointed bishop of 
Smyrna. This testimony concerning Polycarp is 
given by Irenasus, uho in his youth had seen him : 

I can tell the place," saith Irenaeus, in which 
the blessed Polycarp sat and taught, and his going 
out and coming in, and the manner of his life, and 
the form' of his person, and the discourses he made 
to the people, and how he related his conversation 
•with John, and others who had seen the Lord, and 
how he related their sayings, and w^hat he had heard 
concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles 
and his doctrine, as he had received them from the 



* iii. 8. " The wind blowetli where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it 
goeth; so is every one that is bom of the Spirit.'' 

X. 9. " I am the door ; by me, if any man enter in, he sliall l;e 
saved." 

t Lardner's Cred. vol. i. p. 192. 



THE EVIDENCES 



eye- witnesses of the word of life ; all which Poly- 
carp related agreeable to the Scriptures." 

Of Polycarp, whose proximity to the age and 
country and persons of the apostles is thus attested, 
we have one undoubted epistle remaining ; and 
this, though a short letter, contains nearly forty 
clear allusions to books of the New Testament ; 
which is strong evidence of the respect which Chris- 
tians of that age bore for these books. 

Amongst these, although the writings of Saint 
Paul are more frequently used by Polycarp than 
other parts of the Scripture, there are copious al- 
lusions to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, some to 
passages found in the Gospels both of Matthew and 
Luke, and some which more nearly resemble the 
words in Luke. 

I select the following, as fixing the authority of 
the Lord's Prayer, and the use of it amongst the 
primitive Christians : " If, therefore, we pray the 
Lord that he will forgive us, we ought also to for- 
give.'' 

" With supplication, beseeching the all-seeing 
God not to lead us into temptation'' 

And the following, for the sake of repeating an 
observation already made, that words of our Lord 
found in our Gospels, were at this early day quoted 
as spoken by him ; and not only so, but quoted 
with so litde question or consciousness of doubt 
about their being really his words, as not even to 
mention, much less to canvass, the authority from 
which they were taken : — 

" But remembering what the Lord said, teach- 
ing. Judge not, that ye be not judged ; forgive, 
and ye shall be forgiven ; be ye merciful, that ye 
may obtain mercy ; with what measure you mete, 
it shall be measured to you again*." 



* Matt, vii* 1, 3. ; V. 7. ; Luke vi. ST, 38. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



iir 



Supposing Polycarp to have had these words 
from the books in which we now find them, it is 
manifest that the books were considered by him, 
and, as he thought, considered by his readers, as 
authentic accounts of Christ's discourses ; and that 
this pomt was incontestable. 

The following is a decisive, though what we call 
a tacit, reference to Saint Peter's speech in the Acts 
of the Apostles : — whom God hath raised, hav- 
ing loosed the pains of death*/' 

VI. Papiasf, a hearer of John and companion 
of Polycarp, as Irenaeus attests, and of that age, 
as all agree, in a passage quoted by Eusebius, from 
a work now lost, expressly ascribes the respective 
Gospels to Matthew^ and Maik; and in a manner 
which proves that these Gospels must have pub- 
licly borne the names of these authors at that time, 
and probably long before ; for Papias does not say 
that one Gospel was written by Matthew, and ano- 
ther by Mark ; but, assuming this as perfecdy well 
known, he tells us from what materials Mark col- 
lected his account, viz. from Peter's preaching; and 
in what language Matthew wrote, viz. in Hebrew. 
Whether Papias was well informed in this state- 
ment or not, to the point for which I produce this 
testimony, namely, that these books bore these 
names at this time, his authority is complete. 

The writers hitherto alleged had all lived and 
conversed with some of the apostles. The works 
of theirs which remain, are, in general, very short 
pieces, yet rendered exti^emely valuable by their 
antiquity ; and none, short as they are, but what 
contain some important testimony to our historical 
Scriptures p 



* Acts ii. 24. + Lardner^s Cred. vol. i. p. 239. 

X That the quotations are more thinly strown in these tlian in the 



118 



THE EVIDENCES 



VII. Not long after these, that is, not much 
more than twenty years after the last, follows Justin 
Martyr f . His remaining works are much larger 
than any that have yet been noticed. AUhough the 
nature of his two principal writings, one of which 
was addressed to heathens, and the other was a con- 
ference with a Jew, did not lead him to such fre- 
quent appeals to Christian books as would have 
appeared in a discourse intended for Christian 
readers, we nevertheless reckon up in them between 
twenty and thirty quotations of the Gospels and 
Acts of the Apostles, certain, distinct, and copious; 
if each verse be counted separately, a much greater 
number ; if each expression, a very great one j:. 

We meet with quotations of three of the Gospels 
within the compass of half a page : " And in other 
words he says, " Depart from me into utter dark- 
ness, which the Father hath prepared for Satan and 
his angels." (This is from Matthew xxv. 41.) 

And again he said in other words, I give unto 
you power to tread upon serpents, and scorpions, 
and venomous beasts, and upon all the power of the 
enemy." (This from Luke x. I9 ) And before 
he was crucified he said, The Son of Man must 
suffer many things^ and be rejected of Scribes and 



writings of the next and of succeeding ages, is in a good measure 
accounted for by the observation, that tiie Scriptures of the New 
Testament had not ijet, nor by their recency hardly could have, be- 
come a general ])?.rt of Christian education; read as tlie OldTesta^ 
ment was by Jews and Christians from their cliiklhood, and thereby 
intimately mixing, as tliat had long done, with all their religious 
ideas, and with their language upon religious subjects. In process 
of time, and as soon periiaps as could be expected, this came to be 
tlie case. And then we perceive the efiect, in a proportionably 
greater frequency, as well as copiousness of allusion *. 
t Lardner's Cred. vol. i. p. 258. 

+ " He cites our present canon, and particularly our four Gos- 
pels, continually ; I dare say, above two hundred times " — Jones & 
]^cw caul Full Method, Append, vol. i. p. 639. ed, 1726. 



* iiicb. Intio^. c. ii. sect. \i. 



'OF CHRISTIANITY. 



U9 



Pharisees, and be crucified, and rise again the third 
day." (This from Mark viii. 31.) 

In another place, Justin quotes a passage in the 
history of Christ's birth, as delivered by Matthew 
and John, and fortifies his quotation by this remark- 
able testimony : As they have taught, who have 
written the history of all things concerning our Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ ; and we believe them." 

Quotations also are found from the Gospel of 
Saint John. 

What, moreover, seems extremely material to be 
observed is, that in all Justin's works, from vvhich 
might be extracted almost a complete Life of Christ, 
there are but two instances in which he refers to 
anything as said or done by Christ, which is not re- 
lated concerning him in our present Gospels ; 
which shows that these Gospels, and these we may 
say alone, were the authorities from which the Chris- 
tians of that day drew the information upon which 
they depended. One of these instances is of a say- 
ing of Christ, not met with in any book now ex- 
tant*. The other, of a circumstance in Christ's 
baptism, namely, a fiery or luminous appearance 
upon the water, which, according to Epiphanius, 



* " Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ has said, In whatso- 
ever I shall find you, in the same 1 siiall also judge you." Possibly 
Justin designed not to quote any text, but to represent the sense of 
many of our Lord's sayings. Fabricins has observed, that this say- 
ing' has been quoted by many writers, and that Justin is the only one 
who ascribes it to our Lord, and that perliaps by a slip of his me- 
mory. 

Words resembling these are read repeatedly in Ezekiel : — *' I will 
judge them according to their ways." (vii. 3. ; xxxiii. 20.) It is re- 
markable that Justin had but just before expressly quoted Ezekiel, 
Mr. Jones upon this circumstance founded a conjecture that Justin 
had wrote only " the Lord hath said," intending to quote the words 
of God, or rather the sense of those words, in Ezekiel ; and that some 
transcriber, imagining tliese to be the words of Christ, inserted ill 
his copy the addition " Jesus Christ." Yok i. p, 539. 



no 



THE EVIDENCF-S 



13 noticed in the Gospel of the Hebrews; and 
which might be true ; but which, whether true or 
false, is mentioned by Justin, with a plain mark of 
diminution, wheii compared with what he quotes as 
resting upon Scripture authority. The reader will 
advert to this distinction : " And then, when Jesus 
came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing, 
as Jesus descended into the water, a fire also was 
kindled in Jordan ; and when he came up out of the 
water, the apostles of ' this our Christ havezvritten 
that the Holy Ghost lighted upon him as a dove." 

All the references in Justin are made without 
mentioning the author; which proves that these 
books were perfectly notorious, and that there were 
no other accounts of Christ then extant, or, at least, 
no others so received and credited as to make it 
necessary to distinguish these from the rest. 

But although Justin mentions not the author's 
name, he calls the books " Memoirs, composed 
by the Apostles;" "Memoirs, composed by the 
Apostles and their Companions;" which descrip- 
tions, the latter especially, exactly suit with the 
titles which the Gospels and Acts of the Aposdes 
now bear. 

Vni. Hegesippus ^ came about thirty years after 
Justin. His testimony is remarkable only for this 
particular ; that he relates of himself, That, tra- 
velling from Palestine to Rome, he visited upon 
his journey many bishops ; and that, " in every 
succession, and in every city, the same doctrine is 
taught which the Law, and the Prophets, and the 



* Lardner's Cred. vol. L p. 314. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, Ifi 

Lord teacheth." This is an important attestation, 
from good authority and of high antiquity. It is 
generally understood that, by the word Lord, He- 
gesippus intended some writing or writings, con- 
taining the teaching of Christ; in which sense alone 
the term combines with the other terms Laxv and 
Prophets, which denote writings; and together 
with them admits of the verb preachefh in the pre- 
sent tense. Then, that these writings were some or 
all of the books of the New Testament, is rendered 
probable from hence ; that in the fragments of his 
works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a 
writer of the ninth century, enough, though it be 
little, is left to show that Hegesippus expressed 
divers things in the style of the Gospels, and of 
the Acts of the Apostles ; that he referred to the 
history in the second chapter of Matthew, and re- 
cited a text of that Gospel as spoken by our Lord. 

IX. At this time, mz. about the year 170, the 
churches of Lyons and Vienne, in France, sent a 
relation of the sufferings of their martyrs to the 
churches of Asia and Phrygia^. The epistle is 
preserved entire by Eusebius ; and, what carries in 
some measure the testimony of these churches to a 
higher age is, that they had now for their bishop^ 
Pothinus, who was ninety years old, and whose early 
life consequently must have immediately joined on 
with the times of the apostles. In this epistle are 
exact references to the Gospels of Luke and John, 
and to the Acts of the Apostles; the form of refer- 
ence the same as in all the preceding articles. That 
from Saint John is in these words : — " Then was 
fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord, that 



* Lardiier's Cred. vol. i. p. 332. 



122 



THE EVIDENCES 



whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God 
service 

X. The evidence now opens upon us full and 
clear. Irenaeusf succeeded Pothinus as bishop of 
Lyons. In his youth he had been a disciple of 
Poly carp, who was a disciple of John. In the time 
in which he lived, he was distant not much more 
than a century from the publication of the Gos- 
pels ; in his instruction, only by one step separated 
from the persons of the apostles. He asserts of 
himself and his contemporaries, that they were 
able to reckon up, in all the principal churches, the 
succession of bishops from the first J. I remark 
these particulars concerning Ireneeus with more for- 
mality than usual, because the testimony which this 
writer affords to the historical books of the New 
Testament, to their authority, and to the titles 
which they bear, is express, positive, and exclu- 
sive. One principal passage, in which this testimony 
is contained, opens with a precise assertion of the 
point which we have laid down as the foundation of 
our argument, "viz. That the story which the Gos- 
pels exhibit, is the story which the apostles told. 
" We have not received," saith Irenseus, " the 
knowledge of the way of our salvation by any others 
than those by whom the Gospel has been brought 
to us: — which Gospel they first preached, and 
afterwards, by the will of God, committed to 
writing, that it might be for time to come the foun- 
dation and pillar of our faith ; for after that our 
Lord rose from the dead, and they (the apostles) 
were endowed from above with the power of the 
Holy Ghost coming down upon them, they receiv-^ 



* John xvi. 2. 

t Laniner, vol. i. p. 344. 

I Adv. iiycres, 1. iii. c. 3. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



123 



ed a perfect knowledge of all things. They then 
went forth to all the ends of the earth, declaring to 
men the blessing of heavenly peace, having all of 
them, and every one alike, the Gospel of God. 
Matthew, then among the Jews, writ a Gospel in 
their own language, while Peter and Paul w'ere 
preaching the Gospel at Rome, and founding a 
church there ; and, after their exit, Mark also, the 
disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in 
writing the things that had been preached by Peter ; 
and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a 
book the Gospel preached by him (Paul). After- 
wards John, the disciple of the Lord, who also 
leaned upon his breast, he likewise published a 
Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus m Asia." — If any 
modern divine should write a book upon the ge- 
nuineness of the Gospels, he could not assert it 
more expressly, or state their original more dis- 
tinctly, than Irenasus hath done, within little more 
than a hundred years after they were published. 

The correspondency, in the days of Irenaeus, of 
the oral and written tradition, and the deduction of 
the oral tradition through various channels from the 
age of the apostles, which was then lately passed, 
and, by consequence, the probability that the books 
truly delivered w^hat the apostles taught, is inferred 
also with strict regulation from another passage of 
his works. The tradition of tne apostles," this 
father saiih, " hath spread itself over the whole 
universe ; and all they who search after the sources 
of truth, will find this tradition to be held sacred in 
every church. We might enumerate all those who 
have been appointed bishops to these churches by 
the apostles, and all their successors up to our days. 
It is by this uninterrupted succession that we have 
received the tradition that actually exists in the 
church, as also the doctrines of truth, as it was 



THE EVIDENCES 



preached by the apostles The reader will ob- 
serve upon this, that the same Irena^us, who is now 
staling the strength and uniformity of the tradition 
we have before seen, recognising, in the fullest man- 
ner, the authority of the written records ; from 
which we are entitled to conclude, that they were 
then conformable to each other. 

I have said, that the testimony of Irenceus in fa- 
vour of our Gospels is exclusive of all others. I 
allude to a remarkable passage in his works, in 
which, from some reasons sufficiently fanciful, he 
endeavours to show that there could be neither 
more nor fewer Gospels ihzn four. With his ar- 
gument we have no concern. The position itself 
proves that four, and only four Gospels were at that 
time publicly read and acknowledged. That these 
w^ere our Gospels, and in the state in which we now 
have them, is shewn, from many other places of this 
writer, besides that which we have already alleged. 
He mentions how Matthew begins his Gospel, 
how Mark begins and ends his, and their supposed 
reasons for so doing. He enumerates at length the 
several passages of Christ's history in Luke, which 
are not found in other of the evangelists. He 
states the particular design with which Saint John 
composed his Gospel, and accounts for the doctrinal 
declaration which precede the narrative. 

To the book of the Acts of the Apostles, its 
author, and credit, the testimony of Irenasus is 
no less explicit. Referring to the account of 
Saint Paul's conveision and vocation, in the ninth 
chapter of that book, " Nor can they," says he, 
meaning the parties with whom he argues, " show 
that he is not to be credited, who has related to 



* Ir. in Haer. 1. iii. c. 3. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



125 



US the truth with the greatest exactness.'* In ano- 
ther place, he has accurately collected the several 
texts, in which the writer of the history is repre- 
sented as accompanying Saint Paul ; which leads 
him to deliver a summary of almost the whole of 
the last twelve chapters of the book. 

In an author thus abounding with references 
and allusions to the Scriptures, there is not one to 
any apocryphal Christian-writing whatever. This 
is a broad line of distinction between our Sacred 
Books, and the pretensions of all others. 

The force of the testimony of the period which 
we have considered, is greatly strengthened by the 
observation, that it is the testimony, and the con- 
curring testimony, of writers who lived in countries 
remote from one another. Clement flourished at 
Rome, Ignatius at Antioch, Polycarp at Smyna, 
Justin Martyr in Syria, and Irenaeus in France. 

XI. Omitting Athenagoras and Theophilus, who 
lived about this time in the remaining works of 
the former of whom are clear references to Mark 
and Luke ; and in the works of the latter, who was 
bishop of Antioch, the sixth in succession fiom the 
apostles, evident allusions to Matthew and John, 
and probable allusions to Luke (which, consider- 
ing the nature of the compositions, that they were 
addressed to heathen readers, is as much as could 
be expected) ; observing also, that the works of 
two learned Christian writers of the same age, 
Miltiades and Pantcenus f , are now lost : of which 
Miltiades, Eusebius records, that his writings 

were monuments of zeal for the Divine Oracies f 
and which Pantaenus, as Jerome testifies, was a 



* Lard. v. i. p. 400.— lb. 422. 
t Ibid.Tol.i. p. 4 18, 450. 



1^6 THE EVIDENCES 

man of prudence and learning, both in the divine 
Scriptures and secular literature, and had left many 
commentaries upon the holy Scriptures then ex- 
tant ; — passing by these without further remark, we 
come to one of the most voluminous of ancient 
Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria*. Cle- 
ment followed Irenasus at the distance of only six- 
teen years, and therefore may be said to maintain 
the series ot testimony in an uninterrupted conti- 
nuation. 

In certain of Clement's works, now lost, but of 
which various parts are recited by Eusebius,. there 
is dven a distinct account of the order in which 

a 

the four Gospels were written. The Gospels 
which contain the genealogies, were (he sa\'s) 
written first ; Mark's next, at the instance of Pe- 
ters followers ; and John s the last : and this ac- 
count he tells us that he had received from pres- 
byters of more ancient times. This testimony 
proves the following points That these Gospels 
were the histories of Christ, then publicly received 
and relied upon ; that the dates, occasions, and 
circumstances, of their publication were at that 
time subjects of attention and inquiry amongst 
Christians. In the works of Clement which re- 
main, the four Gospels are repeatedly quoted by 
the names of their authors ; and the Acts of the 
Apostles is expressly ascribed to Luke. In one 
place, after mentioning a particular circumstance, 
he adds these remarkable words : We have not 
this passage in the four Gospels delivered to us, 
but in that according to the Egyptians which 
puts a marked distinction between the four Gospels 
and all other histories, or pretended histories, of 
Christ. In another part of his works, the perfect 



* Lard. vol. ii. p. 469. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



in 



confidence with which he received the Gospels, is 
signified by iiim in these words : " That this is 
true appears from hence, — that it is written in the 
Gospel according to Saint Luke and again, " I 
need not use many words, but only to allege the 
evangehc voice of the Lord." His quotations are 
numerous. The sayings of Christ, of which he 
alleges many, are all taken from our Gospels ; the 
single exception to this observation appearing to be 
a loose quotation of a passage in Saint Matthew's 
Gospel. 

Xn. In the age in which they lived f , Tertul- 
lian joins on with Clement. The number of the 
Gospels then received, the names of the evangel- 
ists, and their proper descriptions, are exhibited by 
this writer in one short sentence; — Among the 
apostles^ John and Matthew teach us the faith ; 
among apostolic men, Luke and Mark refresh it." 
The next passage to be taken from Tertullian, af- 
fords as complete an attestation to the authenticity 
of our books as can be well imagined. After 
enumerating the churches which had been founded 
by Paul at Corinth, in Galatia, at Philippi, Thes- 
salonica, and Ephesus ; the church of Rome esta- 
blished by Peter and Paul, and other churches de- 
rived from John, he proceeds thus : — I say then, 
that with them, but not with'them only which are 
apostolical, but with all who have fellowship with 
them in the same faith, is that Gospel of Luke 



* " Ask great things, and the small shall be added unto you." 
Clement rather chose to expound the words of Matthew (vi. 33.) 
than literally to cite them ; »iid this is most undeniably proved by 
another place in the same Clement, where he both produces the 
text and these w ords as an exposition : — *' Seek ye tirst the king- 
dom of Heaven and its righteousness, for these are the great things ; 
but the small things, and things relating to this life, shall be added 
unto you." — Joyies's .New and Full Method, vol. i. p. 553. 

t Lardner, vol. ii. p. 561. 



1£8 



THE iiVIBENCES 



received from its first publication, which we so 
zealously mainiaia :" and presently afterwards 
adds, — ^* The same authority of the apostolical 
churches will support the other Gospels which we 
have from them, and according to them, I mean 
John's and Matthew's ; although that likewise 
which Mark published may be said to be Peter's, 
whose interpreter Mark was.'' In another place 
Tertullian affirms, that the three other Gospels 
were in the hands of the churches from the begin- 
ning, as well as Luke's. This noble testimony fixes 
the universality with which the Gospels were re- 
ceived, and their antiquity ; that they were in the 
hands of all, and had been so from the first. And 
this evidence appears not more than one hundred 
and fifty years after the publication of the books. 
The reader must be given to understand, that, 
when Tertullian speaks of maintaining or defend- 
ing ( tuendi) the Gospel of Saint Luke, he only 
means maintaining or defending the integrity of 
the copies of Luke received by Christian Churches, 
in opposition to certain curtailed copies used by 
Marcion, against whom he writes. 

This author frequently cites the Acts of the 
Apostles under that title, once calls it Luke's Com- 
mentary, and observes how Saint Paul's epistles 
confirm it. 

After this general evidence, it is unnecessary to 
add particular quotations. These, however, are so 
numerous and ample, as to have led Dr. Lardner 
to observe, " That there are more, and larger 
quotations of the small volume of the New Testa- 
ment in this one Christian author, than there are 
of all the works of Cicero in writers of all charac- 
ters for several ages 



* Lard. vol. ii. p. 647. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Tertoiliaq quotes no Christian writing as of 
equal authority with the Scriptures, and no spuri- 
ous books at all : a broad Hnc of distinction, we 
may once more observe, between our sacred books 
and all others. 

We may again likewise remark the wide extent 
throuiJ;h which the reputation of the Gospels, and 
of the Acts of the Apostles, had spread, and the 
perfect consent, in this point, of distant and inde- 
pendent societies. It is now only about one hun- 
dred and fifty years since Christ was crucified ; and 
within this period, to say nothing of the apostoli- 
cal fathers who have been noticed already, we have 
Justin Martyr at Neapolis, Theophilus at Antioch, 
Irenaeus in France, Clement at Alexandria, Tertul- 
lian at Carthage, quoting the same books of his- 
torical Scriptures, and, I may say, quoting these 
alone. 

XIII. An interval of only thirty years, and that 
occupied by no small number of Christian writers *j 
whose works only remain in fragments and quota- 
tions, and in every one of which is some reference 
or other to the Gospels (and in one of them, Hip- 
polytus, as preserved in Theodoret, is an abstract 
of the whole Gospel history) brings us to a name of 
great celebrity in Christian antiquity, Origen f of 
Alexandria, who, in the quarltity of his writings, 
exceeded the most laborious of the Greek and Latin 
authors. Nothing can be more peremptory upon 
the subject now under consideration, and from a 
writer of his learning and information, more satis- 
- factory, than the declaration of Origen, preserved. 



* Miniicias Felix, Apolloiiius, Cains, Asteriiis, Urbamis, Alex- 
ander, Bishop of Jerusalem^ Hippoljlus, Ammonius, Julius AM- 
canus. 

t Lard, vol iii. p. 234. ' 



130 



THE EVIDE^iC£S 



in an extract from his works, byEusebius: — "That 
the four Gospels alone are received, without dis-* 
pute, by the whole church of God under Heaven 
to which declaration is immediately subjoined a 
brief history of the respective authors to whom 
they were then, as they are now, ascribed. The 
language holden concerning the Gospels through- 
out the works of Origen which remain, entirely 
correspond with the testimony here cited. PJis at- 
testation to the Acts of the Aposiles is no less posi- 
tive : — "And Luke also once more sounds the 
trumpet relating the Acts of the Apostles." The 
universality with which the Scriptures were then 
read, is well signified by this writer, in a passage in 
which he has occasion to observe against Celsus, 
" That it is not in any private books, or such as 
are read by a few onl}, and those studious per- 
sons, but in books read by every body, that it is 
written. The invisible things of God, from the 
creation of the world, are clearly seen, being un- 
derstood by things that are made." It is to no 
/purpose to single out quotations of Scripture from 
such a writer as this ■ we might as well make a 
selection of th« quotations of Scripture in Dr. 
Clarke's Sermons. They are so thickly sown in 
the works of Origen, that Dr. Mill says, " If we 
had all his works remaining, we should have before 
us almost the whole text of the Bible 

Origen notices, in order to censure, certain apo- 
cryphal Gospels. He also uses four writings of 
this sort ; that is, throughout his large works he 
once or twice, at the niosr, quotes each of the 
four ; but always with some mark, either of direct 
reprobation, or of caution to his readers, mani- 
festly esteeming tliem of little or no authority. 



llill, ProIe<^. cap. vi. p. 66, 



OF CHRIStlANITY. 



131 



Xiy. Gregory, bishop of Neocesario, and 
Dionysius of Alexaadria, were scholars of Origen. 
Their testimony, therefore, though full and parti- 
cular, may be reckoned a repetition only of his. 
The series, however, of evidence, is continued by 
Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who flourished withia 
twenty years after Orio^en. " The Church (says 
this father) is watered, like Paradise, by four rivers, 
that is, by four Gospels." The Acts of the Apos- 
tles is also frequently quoted by Cyprian under that 
name, and under the name of The Divine Scriptures^ 
In his various writings are such constant and copi- 
ous citations of Scripture, as to place this part of 
the testimony beyond controversy. Nor is there, 
in the works of this eminent African bishop, one 
quotation of a spurious or apocryphal Christian 
writing. 

XV. Passing over a crowd * of writers follow- 
ing Cyprian at different distances, but all within 
forty years of his time ; and who all, in the imper- 
fect remains of their works, either cite the histori- 
cal Scriptures of the New Testament, or speak of 
them in terms of profound respect, I single out 
Victorin, bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, merely 
on account of the remoteness of his situation from 
that of Origen and Cyprian, who were Africans ; 
by which circumstance his testimony, taken in con- 
junction with theirs, proves that the Scripture his- 
tories, and the same histories, were known and 
received from one side of the Christian world to 
the other. This bishop f lived about the year 29O ; 



* Novatus, Rome, A. D.251; Dionysius, Rome, A. D. 259; 
Commodiaii, A. D. 270 ; Anatolius, Laodicea, A. D. 270; Theog- 
nostus, A. D.282 ; Methodius Lj cia, A. D. 290 ; Phileas, E^ypt, 
A. D. 296. 
t Lard. vol. v. p. 214. 

K 2 



15^ 



THE EVIDEJ^CES 



and in a ccnimentary upon this text of the Revela- 
tions, "The first was like a lion, the second was 
like a calf, the third like a man, and the fourth like 
a flying eagle," he makes out that, by the four crea- 
tures are intended the four Gospels ; and, to show 
t?he propriety of the symbols, he recites the subject 
with which each evangelist opens his history. The 
explication is fanciful, but the testimony positive. 
He also expressly cites the Acts of the Apostles. 

XVL Arnobius and Lactantius*, about the 
year 300, composed formal arguments upon the 
credibility of the Christian religion. As these ar- 
guments were addressed to Gentiles, the authors 
abstain from quoting Christian books % name; 
one of them giving this vei y reason for his reserve ; 
but when they come to state, for the information 
of their readers, the outlines of Christ's history, 
it is apparent that they draw their accounts from 
our Gospels, and from no other sources; for these 
statements exhibit a summary of almost every thing 
which is related of Christ's actions and miracles by 
the four evangelists. Arnobius vindicates, with- 
out mentioning their names, the credit of these 
historians ; observing that they were eye-witnesses 
of the facts which they relate, and that their ignor- 
ance of the arts of composition was rather a con- 
firmation of their testimony, than an objection to 
it. Lactantius also argues in defence of the reli- 
gion, from the cousistency, simplicity, disinterest- 
edness, and sufferings of the Christian historians, 
meaning by that term our evangelists. 

XVII. We close the series of testimonies with 
that of Eusebius t, bishop of Cesaria, who flourish- 



* Lard. vol. vii. p. 43, 201. 
t Lard. vol. yiii. p., 33. 



©F CHRISTIANITY. ] S3 

ed in the year 315, contemporary with, or posterior 
only by fifteen years, to the two authors last cited. 
This voluminous writer, and most diligent collec- 
tor of the writings of others, beside a variety of 
large works, composed a history of the affairs of 
Christianity from its origui to his own time. His 
testimony to the Scriptures is the testimony of a 
man much conversant in the works of Christian 
authors, written during the three first centuries of 
its £era, and wlio had read many which are now 
lost. In a passage of his Evangelical Demonstra- 
tion, Eusebius remarks, with great nicety, the de-^ 
licacy of two of the evangelists, in their manner of 
noticing any circumstance which regarded them- 
selves ; and of Mark, as writing under Peter's di- 
rection, in the circumstances which regarded him. 
The illustration of this remark leads him to bring 
together long quotations from each of the evange- 
lists ; and the whole passage is a proof that Euse- 
bius, and the Christians of those days, not only 
read the Gospels, but studied them with attention 
and exactness. In a passage of his Ecclesiastical 
History, he treats in form, and at large, of the oc- 
casions of writing the four Gospels, and of the 
order in which they were written. The title of the 
chapter is, Of ihe Order of the Gospels ; and it 
begins thus : — " Let us observe the writings of 
the apostle John, which are not contradicted by 
any ; and, first of all must be mentioned, as ac- 
knowledged by all, the Gospel according to him^ 
well known to all the churches under Heaven ; and 
that it has been justly placed by the antients the 
fourth in order, and after the other three may be 
made evident in tliis manner." Eusebius then pro- 
ceeds to show that John wrote the last of the four ; 
— that his Gospel was intended to supply the 
©missions of the others ; especially in the part of 



134 



THE EVIDENCES 



our Lord's ministry, which took place before the 
imprisonment of John the Baptist. He observes 
That the apostles of Christ were not studious of 
the ornaments of composition, nor indeed forward 
to write at all, being wholly occupied with their 
ministry." 

This learned author makes no use at all of Chris 
tian writings, forged with the names of Christ's 
apostles, or their companions. 

We close this branch of our evidence here, be- 
cause, after Eusebius, there is no room for any 
question upon the subject, — the works of Chris- 
tian writers being as full of texts of Scripture, and 
of references to Scripture, as the discourses of 
modern divines. Future testimonies to the books 
of Scripture could only prove that they never lost 
their character or authority. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



135 



SECTION II. 

When the Scriptures are quoted^ or alluded to^ 
they are quoted with peculiar respect as Books 
sui generis ; as possessing an Authority xvhich 
belonged to no other Books, and as conclusive in 
all Questions and Controversies amongst Chris- 
tians. 

^Beside the general strain of reference and quo- 
tation, which uniformly and strongly indicates this 
distinction, the following may be regarded as spe- 
cific testimonies 

I. Theophilus bishop of Antioch, the sixth in 
succession from the Apostles, and who flourished 
little more than a century after the books of the 
New Testament were written, having occasion to 
quote one of our Gospels, writes thus : — " Ihese 
things the holy Scriptures teach us, and all who were 
moved by the Holy Spirit, among whom John says, 
* In the beginning was the Word, and the word 
was with God." Again, " Concerning the righte- 
ousness which the law teaches, the like things are 
to be found in the Prophets and the Gospels ; be- 
cause that all being inspired, spoke by one and the 
same Spirit of Godf." No words can testify more 
strongly than these do, the high and pecuHar respect 
in which these books were holden. 



* Lard. Cred. Part ii. vol, ii. p. 429. + lb. \ol. i. p. 443. 



135 



THE EVIDENCES 



IL A writer against ArtemonJ, who may be 
supposed to come about one hundred and fifty- 
eight years after the pubhcation of the Scripture, in 
a passage quoted by Eusebius, uses these expres- 
sions : — " Possibly what they (our adversaries) say, 
might have been credited, ij first of all the Diyine 
Scripture did not contradict them ; and then the 
writings of certain brethren more ancient than the 
times of Victor." The brethren mentioned by 
name are, Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, 
IreniEus, Melito, with a general appeal to many 
more not named. This passage proves, first. That 
there was at that time a collection called Divine 
Sa^iptures ; secondly, That these Scriptures were 
esteemed of higher authority than the writings of 
the most early and celebrated Christians. 

HI. In a piece ascribed to Hippolytus*, who 
lived near the same time, the author professes, in 
giving his correspondent instruction in the things 
about which he enquires, " To draw out of the sa- 
cred joitntain, and to set before him, from the sacred 
Scriptures, what may afford him satisfaction." He 
then quotes immediately Pauls Epistles to Timothy; 
and afterwards njany books of the New Testament. 
This preface to the quotations, carries in it a mark- 
ed distinction betueen the Scriptures and other 
books. 

IV. " Our assertions and discourses," saith Ori- 
gen §, are unworthy of credit ; — we must receive 
the Scriptures as witnesses.'' After treating of the 
duty of prayer, he proceeds with his argument 
thus: — "What we have said may be proved from 
the Divine Scriptures." In his books against Cel- 



% Lard. Cied. vol. iii. p. 40. * lb. \oI. iii. p. 112. 

§ lb. vol. iii- p. 287, 288, 299. 



OF CPIRISTIANITY. 



137 



sus, we find this passage: — ^^That our religion 
teaches us to seek after wisdom, shall be shown, 
both out of the ancient Jewish Scriptures, which 
we also use, and out of those written since Jesus, 
which are believed in the churches to be divine." 
These expressions afford abundant evidence of the 
peculiar and exclusive authority which the Scrip- 
tures possessed. 

V. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage whose age 
lies close to that of Origen, earnestly exhorts Chris- 
tian teachers, in all doubtful cases, To go back to 
the fountain ; and if the truth has, in any case, 
been shaken, to recur to the Gospels and apostolic 
writings." " The precepts of the Gospel," says he, 
in another place, " are nothing less than authorita- 
tive divine lessons, the foundations of our hope, 
the supports of our faith, the guides of our way, 
the safeguards of our course to Heaven." 

VI. Novatus f, a Roman, contemporary with 
Cyprian, appeals to the Scriptures, as the authoifty 
by which all errors were to be repelled, and dis- 
putes decided. " That Christ is not only man but 
God also, is proved by the sacred authority of the 
Divine Writings." "The Divine Scripture easily 
detects and confutes the frauds of heretics." It is 
not by the fault of the heavenly Scriptures, which 
never deceive." Stronger assertions than these 
could not be used. 

VII. At the distance of twenty years from the 
writer last cited, Anatolius J, a learned Alexandrian, 
and bishop of Laodicea, speaking of the rule for 
keeping Easter, a question at that day agitated with 



* Lard. Cred. vol. iv. p. 840. 
X lb. p. 140. 



t lb. vol. V. p. 102. 



138 



THE EVIDENCES 



much earnestness, says of those whom he opposed, 
They can by no means prove their point by the 
authority of the Divine Scripture." 

VIII. The Arians, who sprung up about fifty 
years after this, argued strenuously against the use 
of the words consubstantial and essence, and Hke 
phrases ; because they were not in Scripture * 
and in the same strain, one of their advocates opens 
a conference with Augustine, after the following 
manner : — If you say what is reasonable, I must 
submit ; — if you allege any thing from the Divine 
Scriptures which are common to both, I must hear: 
but unscriptural expressions {(iU(E extra Scrlptu- 
ram sunt^ deserve no regard." 

Athanasius, the great antagonist of Arianisnn, after 
having enumerated the books of the Old and New 
Testament, adds, These are the fountains of salva- 
tion, that he who thirsts may be satisfied with the 
oracles contained in them. In these alone the 
doctrine of salvation is proclaimed. Let no man 
aSd to them, or take any thing from them f ." 

IX. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem who wrote about 
twenty years after the appearance of Arianism, 
uses these remarkable words : — Concerning the 
divine and holy mysteries of faith, not the least 
article ought to be delivered without the divine 
Scriptures." We are assured that Cyril's Scriptures 
w^ere the same as ours ; for he has left us a cata- 
logue of the books included under that name. 

X. Epiphanius §, twenty years after Cyril, chal- 
lenges the Arians, and the followers of Origen, " To 



* Lard. Cred. vol ^ii. p. 283, 2Bi. 
+ lb. vol. xii. p. 182. 
X lb. vol. viil. p. 2:6. 
§ lb. vol. viii. p. 314. 



OF CHRISTIAN^ITY. 



139 



produce any passage of the Old or New Testament 
favouring their sentiments." 

XI. Pcebadius, a Gallic bishop, who lived about 
thirty years after the Council of Nice, testifies, That 
the bishops of that council first consulted the sa- 
cred volumes, and then declared their faith 

XII. Basil, bishop of Cassarea, in Cappadocia, 
contemporary with Epiphanius, says, ''That hearers 
instructed in the Scriptures ought lo examine what 
is said by their teachers, and to embrace what is 
agreeable to the Scriptures, and to reject what is 
otherwise |." 

XIII. Ephraim, the Syrian, a celebrated writer 
of the same times, bears this conclusive testimony 
to the proposition which forms the subject of our 
present chapter : — '' The truth written in the sa- 
cred volume of the Gospel, is a perfect rule. No- 
thing can be taken from it, nor added to it, without 
great guilt J." 

XIV. If we add Jerome to these, it is only for 
the evidence which he affords of the judgment of 
preceding ages. Jerome observes, concerning the 
quotations of ancient Christian writers, that is, of 
writers who were ancient in the year 400, That they 
made a distinction between books ; some they quot- 
ed as of authority, and others not: which obser- 
vation relates to the books of Scripture, compared 
with other writings, apocryphal or heathen 



* Lard. Cred. vol. ix. p. 52 
X lb. p. 202. 



+ lb. vol. ix. p 124. 
§ lb. vol. X. p. 123, \2i. 



J4() THE EVIDEXCES 



SECTION IIL 

The Scriptures xvercy in Tery early Times, collected 
into a distinct Volume, 

Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch within 
forty years after the Ascension, and who had hved 
and conversed with the apostles, speaks of the 
Gospel and of the apostles, in terms which render 
it very probable that he meant by the Gospel the 
book or volume of the Gospels ; and by the apos- 
tles, the book or volume of their Epistles. His 
-words in one place are ^, Fleeing to the Gospel 
-as the flesh of Jesus, and to the apostles as the 
presbytery of the church;" that is, as Le Clerc in- 
terprets them, in order to understand the will of 
God, he fled to the Gospels, which he beheved no 
less than if Christ in the flesh had been speaking to 
him ; and to the writings of the apostles, whom he 
esteemed as the presbytery of the \^hole Christian 
church." It must be observed, that about eighty 
years after this we have direct proof, in the writ- 
ings of Clement of Alexandria f, that these two 
names, Gospels and Jpostks, \\ ere the names by 
^ihich the writings of the New Testament, and the 
division of these writings, were usually expressed. 
Another passage from Ignatius is the following : — 
But the Gospel has somewhat in it more excel- 



* Lard. Cred. p. ii. vol, i. p. 180. 
t lb. Yoi. ii. p. 516. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



I4i 



lent, the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, his 
passion and resurrection 

And a third : "Ye ought to hearken to the Pro- 
phets, but especially to the Gospels, in which the 
passion has been manifested to us, and the resur- 
rection perfected." In this last passage the Pro-^ 
phets and the Gospel are put in conjunction ; and, 
as Ignatius undoubtedly meant by the Propiiets, a 
collection of v. ritings, it is probable that he meant 
the same by the Gospel, the two terms standing in 
evident parallelism with each other. 

This interpretation of the word Gospel, in the 
passages above quoted from Ignatius, is confirmed 
by a piece of nearly equal antiquity, — the relation 
of the martyrdom of Polycarp, by the church of 
Smyrna. All things," say they, " that went be- 
fore, were done, that the Lord might show us a 
martyrdom according to the Gospel ; for he ex- 
pected to be also delivered up, as the Lord also 
did I and, in another place, " We do not com- 
mend those who offer themselves, forasmuch as the 
Gospel teaches us no such thing J," In both these 
places, what is called The Gospel, seems to be the 
history of Jesus Christ, and of his doctrine. 

If this be the true sense of the passages, they are 
not only evidences of our proposition, but strong, 
and very ancient proofs of the high esteem in which 
the books of the New Testament were holden. 

IL Eusebius relates, That Quadratus and some 
others, w^ho were the immediate successors of th i 
apostles, travelling abroad to preach Christ, car- 
ried the Gospels with them, and delivered them 
to their converts. The words of Eusebius are 



* Lard. vol. ii. p. 183, 
f Ig. Ep. c. i. 

1 lb. c. iy, 



342 



THE EVIDENCES 



" Then travelling abroad, they performed the work 
of evangelists, being ambitious to preach Christ, 
and deliver the Scripture of Divine Gospels 
Eusebius had before hini the writings both of Qua* 
dratus Inmself, and of many others of that age, 
which are now lost It is reasonable, therefore, to 
believe that he had good grounds for his assertion. 
What is thus recorded of the Gospels, took place 
Vidthin sixty, or, at the most, seventy years after they 
were published ; and it is evident that they must, 
before this time (and, it is probable, long before 
this time) have been in general use, and in high 
esteem in the churches planted by the apostles, in- 
asmuch as they were now, we find, collected into a 
volunje ; and the immediate successors of the apos- 
tles, they who preached the religion of Christ to 
those who had not already heard it, carried the 
volume with them, and delivered it to their con- 
vert's. 

III. IrenaeUs, in the year 178 t> pu^s the evan- 
gelic and apostolic writings in connection with the 
Law and the Prophets, manifestly intending by the 
one a code or collection of Christian sacred wTit- 
ings, as the other expressed the code or collection 
of Jewish sacred writings; — and, 

IV. Melito, at this time bishop of Sardis, writing 
to one Onesimus, tells his correspondent J, That he 
had procured an accurate account of the books of 
the Old Testament. The occurrence, in this pas- 
sage of the O/^/ Testament, has been brought to 
prove, and it certainly does prove, that there was 
then a volume, or collection of writings, called 
The New Testament, 



* Lard. Cred. p. ii. vol. i. p. 236. 

+ lb, vol. i. p. 383. X lb. p. 331. 



OF CPIRISTIANITY. 



143 



V. In the time of Clement of Alexandria, about 
fifieen years after the last quoted testimony, it is 
apparent that the Christian Scriptures were divided 
ii]to two parts, under the general titles of the Gos- 
pels and Jpostles ; and that both these were re- 
garded as of the highest authority. One, out of 
many expressions of Clement, alluding to this dis- 
tribution, is the following : — " There is a consent 
and harmony between the Law and the Prophets, 
the Apostles and the Gospel*." 

VI. The same division, Prophets, Gospels, and 
Apostles, appears in Tertulliant, the contempo- 
rary. The collection of the Gospels is likewise 
called by this writer The Evangelic Instrument 
the whole volume The New Testament ; and the two 
parts, The Gospels and Apostles §. 

VII. From many writers also of the third cen- 
lary, and especially from Cyprian, who lived in the 
middle of it^ it is collected, that the Christian 
Scriptures were divided into two codes, or volumes, 
one called The Gospels, or Scriptures of the Lord ; 
the other The Apostles, or Epistles of the Apos- 
tles\\. 

VIII. Eusebius, as we have already seen, takes 
some pains to show that the Gospel of Saint John 
had been justly placed by the antients " the fourth 
i[i order, and after the other three These are 
the terms of his proposition ; and the very intro- 
duction of such an argument proves incontestably, 
that the four Gospels had been collected into a 
volume, to the exclusion of every other ; that their 



* Lard. Cred- vol ii. p. 51(3. 

: lb. p. 574. 

II lb. vol. iv. p. 84G. 



f lb. p. 631. 
§ lb. p 632. 
11 lb. vol. viii. p. 90. 



l44 ' THE EVIDENCES 

order in the volume had been adjusted with niuch 
consideration ; and that this had been done by those 
who were called Antients in the time of Eusebius. 

In the Dioclesian persecution, in the year 503, 
the Scriptures were sought out and burnt* ; many 
suffered death rather than deliver them up ; and 
those who betrayed them to the persecutors, were 
accounted as lapsed and apostate. On the other 
band, Constantine, after his conversion, gave di- 
rections for multiplying copies of the Divine 
Oracles, and for magnificently adorning them at the 
expence of the imperial treasury f . What the Chris- 
tians of that age so richly embellished in their pro- 
sperity, and, which is more, so tenaciously pre- 
served under persecution, waS the very volume of 
the New Testament which we now read. 



* Lardne/s Cred. Vol. viii. p. 214^ et seq=. 
+ lb. p. 433. 



CHRISTIANITY. 



SECTION IV. 

Our present Sacred Writings were soon distin- 
guished bij appropriate Names and Titles of 
Respect, 

I. Polycarp: I trust that ye are well ex- 
ercised in the holy Scriptures, — as in these Scrip- 
tures it is said, Be ye angry and sin not, and let 
not the sun go down upon your wrath*." This 
passage is extremely important; because it proves 
that, in the time of Polycarp, who had lived with 
the apostles, there were Christian writings, distin^ 
guished by the name of " Holy Scriptures," or 
Sacred Writings. Moreover, the text quoted by 
Polycarp is a text found in the collection at this day. 
What also the same Polycarp hath elsewhere quot- 
ed in the same manner, may be considered as 
proved to belong to the collection ,* and this com- 
prehends Saint Matthew's, and probably Saint 
Luke's Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, ten Epistles 
of Paul, the First Epistle of Peter, and the First of 
John-]'. In another place, Polycarp has these 
words: — "Whoever perverts the Oracles of the 
Lord to his own lusts, and says there is neither 
resurrection nor judgment, he is the first born of 
Satan J." — It does not appear what else Polycarp 
could mean by the " Oracles of the Lord," but 
those same " Holy Scriptures," or Sacrpd Writings, 
of which he had spoken before, 



* Lai dner's Cred. vo}. i. p. 203<. 

t lb. p. 223. 

; lb. If ol. i. p. 222, 



THE EVIDENCES 



IF. Justin Martyr, whose apology was written 
about thirty years after Polycarp's epistle, expressly 
cites some of our present histories under the title of 
Gospel, and. that, not as a name by him first as- 
cribed to them, but as the name by which they were 
generally known in his time. His words are these: 

For the apostles, in memoirs composed by them^ 
which are called Gospels, have thus delivered it, 
that Jesus commanded them to take bread, and 
give thanks^/' There exists no doubt but that, by 
the memoirs abovemenlioned, Justin meant our 
present historical Scriptures ; for, throughout his 
works, he quotes these, and no others. 

III. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, who came 
thirty years after Justin, in a passage preserved in 
Eusebius (for his works are lost) speaks " of the 
Scriptures of the Lord f.'* 

IV. And at the same time, or very nearly so, 
by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in France J, they are 
called '^Divine Scriptures, — Divine Oracles, — 
Scriptures of the Lord, — Evangelic and Apostolic 
Writings,§." The quotations of Irenaeus prove de- 
cidedly that our present Gospels, and these alone, 
together with the Acts of the Apostles, were the 
historical books comprehended by him under these 
appellations. 

V. Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Theo- 
philus, bishop of Antioch, contemporary with Ire- 
naeus, under the title of the " Evangelic Voice || f 
and the copious works of Clement of Alexandria, 



* Lard. Cred. vol. i. p. 271. f lb. p. 298. 

X Th* reader will observe the remoteness of these two writers, m 
country and situation. 
§ Lard. vol. i. p. 343, et scq. |1 lb. p. 427. 



OF CHRiSTIANITT. 



147 



published within fifteen years oF the same time, as- 
cribe to the books of the New Testament the va- 
rious titles of Sacred Books," — " Divine Scrip- 
tures," — '^Divinely inspired Scriptures," — Scrip- 
tures of the Lord," — The true Evangelical 
Canon 

VI. Tertullian, who joins on with Clement, be- 
side adojrting most of the names and epithets above 
noticed, calls the Gospels our Digesta," in allu- 
sion, as it should seem, to some collection of Ro- 
man laws then extant f . 

VI I. By Origen, who Came thirty years after 
Tertullian, the same, and others no less strong, titles 
are apphed to the Christian Scriptures ; and, in 
addition thereunto, this writer frequently speaks of 
the Old and New Testament," — the Ancient 
and New Scriptures," — the Ancient and New 
Oracles J." 

VIII. In Cyprian, who was not twenty years 
later, they are " Books of the Spirit," — " Divine 
Fountains," — Fountains of the Divine Fulness 

The expressions we haver thus quoted are evi- 
dences of high and peculiar respect; — they all 
occur within two centuries from the publication of 
the books. Some of them commence with the 
companions of the apostles ; and they increase in 
number and variety through a series of writers, 
touching upon one another, and deduced from the 
first age of the religion. 



* Lard. vol. i. p. 515. + lb. p. 630. 

t lb. vol. iii. p. 280. § lb. vol. iv. p. 844. 

L 2 



us 



THE EVIDENCE.'! 



SECTION V, 

Our Scriptures were publicly read and expounded 
in tlie Religious Assemblies of the early Chris- 
tians, 

Justin Martyr, who wrote in the year 140, 
which was seventy or eighty years after some, and 
less, probably, after others of the Gospels were 
published, giving, in his first apology, an account to 
the emperor of the Christian worship, has this re- 
markabie passage ; — 

" The Memoirs of the Apostles, or the Writings 
of the Prophets, are read according as the time 
allows ; and, when the reader has ended, the pre- 
sident makes a discourse, exhorting to the imitation 
of so excellent things^." 

A few short observations will show the value of 
this testimony. 

1. The Memoirs of the Apostles," Justin in 
another place expressly tells us, are what are called 
Gospels ; and that they were the Gospels which 
we now use, is rnade certain by Justin's numerous 
quotations of them^ and his silence about any 
others. 

2. Justin describes the general usage of the 
Christian Church. 

3. Justin does not speak of it as recent, or newly 
instituted, but in the terms in which men speak of 
established customs. 

11. Tertullian, who followed Justin at the dis- 
tance of about fifty years, in his account ctf the re - 



Gardner's Cred. vol. i. p. 273. 



Oif CHRISTIANITY. 



345 



ligiouig assemblies of Christians, as they were con- 
ducted in his time, says, " We come together to 
recollect the Divine Scriptures ; we nourish our 
faith, raise our hope, confirm our trust, by the Sa- 
cred Word 

III. Eusebius records of Origenj and cites for 
his authority the letters of bishops contemporary 
with Origen, that when he v/ent into Palestine, 
about the year 9.16, which was only sixteen years 
after the date of Tertullian's testimony, he was de- 
sired by the bishops of that country to discourse and 
expound the Scriptures publicly iii the church, 
though he was not yet ordained a presbyter f . This 
anecdote recognises the usage, not only of reading, 
but of expounding the Scriptures ; and both as sub- 
sisting in full force. Oi igen also himself bears wit- 
ness to the same practice: " This (?ays he) we do 
when the Scriptures are read in the church, and 
when the discourse for explication is delivered to 
the people J." And, what is a still more ample tes- 
timony, many homilies of his upon the Scriptures 
of the New Testament, delivered by him in the as- 
semblies of the church, are still extant. 

IV. Gypnan^ whose age was not twenty years 
lowet than that of Origcn, gives his people an ac- 
count of having ordained two persons, who were 
before confessors, to be readers ; and what they 
were to read, appears by the reason which he gives 
for his choice : *' Nothing (says Cyprian) can be 
more fit, than that he v/ho has made a glorious con» 
fession of the Lord, should read publicly in the 



* Lard, Cred, vol, ij, p. 623. t lb. yoI. iii. p, 6R. 

X lb. p. 303- 



150 



THE EVIDENCES 



church ; that he^,M'ho has shown himself willing to 
die a martyr, should read the Gospel of Christy by 
which martyrs are made*." 

V. Intimations of the same custom may be traced 
iri a great number of writers in the beginning and 
throughout the whole of the fourth century. Of 
these testimonies I will only use one, as being of it- 
vself express and full. Augustine, who appeared near 
the conclusion of the century, displays the benefit 
of the Christian religion on this very account, the 
public reading of the Scriptures in the churches, 

where (says he) is a confluence of all sorts of 
people of both sexes, and where they hear how thej 
ought to live well in this world, that they may de- 
serve to live happily and eternally in another." And 
this custom he declares to be universal: "The 
canonical books of Scripture being read every- 
where, the miracles therein recorded are well known 
to all people f 

It does not appear that any books, other than 
our present Scriptures, were thus publicly read, 
except that the epistle of Clement v,'as read in the 
church of Corinth, to which it had been addressed, 
and in some others ; and that the Shepherd of 
Hermas was read in many churches. Nor does 
it subtract much from the value of the argument, 
that these two writings partly come within it, be- 
cause we allow them to be the genuine writings of 
apostolical men. There is not the least evidence 
that any other Gospel than the four w4iich we re- 
ceive, was ever admitted to this distinction. 



^ Lard. Cred, vol. iv. p. 842. f lb. vol. x. p, 278, et seq. 



OF CKRJgSTXANITT. 



151 



SECTION VL 

Cominentaries were anciently written upon the 
Scriptures^ — Harmonies formed out of them, — 
different Copies carefully collated, — and Ver- 
sions made of them into different Langua^^es. 

No greater proof can be given of the esteem in 
which these books were holden by the ancient 
Christians, or of the sense then entertained of their 
value and importance, than the industry bestowed 
upon them ; and it ought to be observed, that the 
value and importance of these books consisted en- 
tirely in their genuineness and truth. There was 
hotiiing in them, as works of taste, or as composi- 
tions, which could have induced any one to have 
written a note upon them. Moreover, it shows 
that they were even then considered as ancient 
books. Men do not write comments upon publi- 
cations of their own times ; therefore the testimo- 
nies cited under this head, afford an evidence which 
carries up the evangelic writings much beyond the 
age of the testimonies themselves, and to that of 
their reputed authors. 

I. Tatian, a follower of Justin Martyr, and who 
flourished about the year I70, composed a har- 
mony, or collation, of the Gospels, which he called 
Diatessaron, Of the four The title, as well as 
the work, is remarkable ; because it shows that then, 
as now, there were four, and only four, Gospels in 



* Lard. Crett tol. i. p. 307. 



152 



THE eviden<:es^ 



general use with Christians; and this was little 
more than a hundred years after the publication of 
some of them. 

IL Pantaenus, of the Alexandrian school, a man 
of great reputation and learning, who came twenty 
years after Tatian, wrote many commentaries upon 
the holy Scriptures, which, as Jerome testifies, were 
extant in his time*. 

Ill Clement of Alexandria, wrote short expli--^ 
cations of many books of the Old and New Testa- 
ment f . 

IV. TertuUian appeals from the authority of 
a later version, then in use, to the authentic 
Greek 

V. An anonymous author quoted by Eusebius, 
and who appears to have written about the year 
212, appeals to the ancient copies of the Scriptures, 
in refutation of some corrupt readings alleged by the 
followers of Artemon §. 

VI. The same Eusebius, mentioning by name 
several writers of the church who lived at this time, 
and concerning whom he says, " There still remain 
divers monuments of the laudable industry of those 
ancient and ecclesiastical men," (i,. e. of Christian 
writers who were considered as ancient in the year 
300) adds, There are besides treatises of many 
others, whose names we have not been able to learn, 
orthodox and ecclesiastical men, as the interpreta- 
tions of the divine Scriptures, given b v each of them, 
show II 



* Lard. Cred. vol. i. p. 455. 

J lb. p. 638. 

\\ lb. vol. ii. p, 551, 



f lb. vol. ii. p. 462. 
§ lb. vol. iii. p. A% 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



155 



VII. The five last testimonies may be referred 
to the year 200 ; immediately after which a period 
of thirty years gives us 

Julius Africanus, who wrote an epistle upon the 
apparent difference in the genealogies in Matthew 
and Luke, which he endeavours to reconcile by the 
distinction of natural and legal descent, and con- 
ducts his hypothesis with great industry through 
the whole series of generations *. 

Ammonius, a learned Alexandrian, who com- 
posed, as Tatian had done, a harmony of the four 
Gospels ; which proves, as Tatian s work did, that 
there were four Gospels, and no more, at this time 
in use in the church. It affords also an instance 
of the zeal of Christians for those writings, and of 
their solicitude about them f. 

And, above both these, Origen, who wrote com- 
mentaries, or homilies, upon most of the books in- 
cluded in the New Testament, and upon no other 
books but these. In particular, he wrote upon 
St. Johns Gospel, very largely upon Saint Mat- 
thew's, and commentaries, or homilies, upon the 
Acts of the Apostles J. 

VIII. In addition to these, the third century 
likewise contains 

Dionysius of Alexandria, a very learned man, 
who compaied, with great accuracy, the accounts 
in the four Gospels of the time of Christ's resurrec- 
tion, adding a reflection which showed his opinion 
of their authority : — " Let us not think that the 
evangelists disagree, or contradict each other, al- 



^ Lard. Ored. vol. iii. p. 170. f lb. p. 12^ 

% lb. p. 352, 192, 202, 345. 



154 



THE EVIDENCES 



though there be some small difference ; but let m 
honestly and faithfully endeavour to reconcile what 
we read 

Victorin, bishop of Pettau, in Germany, who 
wrote comments upon Saint Matthew's GospeP. 

Lucian, a presbyter of Antioch, and Hesychius, 
an Egyptian bishop, who put forth editions of the 
New Testament. 

IX, The fourth century supplies a catalogue f 
of fourteen writers^ who expended their labours 
upon tiie Books of the New Testament, and whose 
works, or names, are come down to our times ; 
amongst which number, it may be sufficient, for 
the purpose of showing the sentiments and studies 
of learned Christians of that age, to notice the fol- 
lowing : — 

Eusebius, in the very beginning of the century, 
wTOte expressly upon the discrepancies observable 
in the Gospels, and likewise a treatise, in which he 
pointed out what things are related by iour, what 
by three, what by two, and what by one, evangel- 
ist ;{:. This author also testifies, what is certainly a 
material piece of evidence. that the writings of 
the apostles had obtained such an esteem, as to be 
translated into every language both of Greeks and 
Barbarians, and to be diligently studied by all na^ 
tions||." This testimony was given about the 



§ Lard. Cred. vol. iv. p. 166. 
t Eusebius, A.D. 315 

Juveiieus, Spain, 330 
Theodore, Ihrace, 334 
Hilary, Poictiers, 354 
Fortuiiatus, 360 
4^ppolliiianus of Laodicea 362 
Pamasus, Rome, 366 
Didimus of Alexandria, 370 
I Lard. Cred, vol, viii. ji 



* Lard, vol. iv. p. 195. 

Gregoiy, Nyssen, A.D. 371 

Ambrose of Milan, 374 

Diodore of Tarsus, 378 

Gaudent of Brescia, 387 

Jerome, 392 

Theodore of Cilicia, 394 

Chrysostom, 398 



46. 



11 lb. p.20L 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



year 300 ; how long before that date these transla- 
tiorrs were made, does not appear. 

Damasus, bishop of Rome, corresponded with 
Saint Jerome upon the exposition of difficult texts 
of Scripture ; and, in a letter still remaining, de- 
sires Jerome to give him a clear explanation of the 
word Hosanna^ found in the New Testament ; he 
(Damasus) having met with very different interpre- 
tations of it in the Greek and Latin commentaries 
of Catholic writers which he had read This last 
clause shows the number and variety of comment- 
aries then extant. 

Gregory of Nyssen, at one time appeals to the 
most exact copies of Saint Mark's Gospel ; at ano- 
ther time, compares together, and proposes to re- 
concile the several accounts of the Ilesuirection 
given by the four evangelists ; which limitation 
proves that there were no other histories of Christ 
deemed authentic beside these, or included in the 
'^same character with these. This writer observes, 
acutely enough, that the disposition of the clothes 
in the sepulchre, the napkin that was about our 
Saviour's head, not lying with the linen clothes^ but 
wrapped together in a place by itself, did not be- 
speak the terror and hurry of thieves, and therefore 
refutes the story of the body being stolen f . 

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, remarked various 
readings in the Latin copies of the New Test^i- 
ment, and appeals to the original Greek ; 

And Jerome, towards the conclusion of this 
century, put forth an edition of the New Testa- 
ment in Latin, corrected, at least as to the Gos- 
pels, by Greek copies, and those (he says) an- 
cient.'' 



* Lard. vol. ix. p. 108. f I^- P- 



156 



tHE EVIDENCE^ 



Lastly, Chrysostom, it is well known, delivered 
and publibihed a great many homilies, or ser- 
mons, upon the Gospels and the Acts of the Apos- 
tles. 

It is needless to bring down this article lower; 
but it is of importance to add, that there is no 
example of Christian writers of the three first 
centuries composing cotnments upon any other 
books than * those which are found in the New 
Testament, except the single one of Clement of 
Alexandria, commenting upon a book called the 
Revelation of Peter. 

Of the ancient versions of the New Testament, 
one of the most valuable is the Syriac. Syriac 
was the language of Palestine when Christianity 
was there first established. And although the 
books of Scripture were written in Greeks for 
the purpose of a more extended circulation than 
within the precincts of Judea, yet it is probable 
that they would soon be translated into the vul- 
gar language of the country where the religion 
first prevailed. Accordingly, a Syriac translation 
is now extant, all along, so far as it appears, 
used by the inhabitants of Syria, bearing many 
internal marks of high antiquity, supported in its 
pretensions by the uniform tradition of the East, 
and confirmed by the discover;^ of many very an- 
cient manuscripts in the libraries of Europe. It 
is about 200 years since a bishop of x'\ntioeh 
sent a copy of this translation into Europe, to be 
printed ; and this seems to be the first time that 
the translation became generally known to these 
parts of the world. The bishop of Antioch's 
Testament was found to contain ail our books, 
except the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second 
and Third of John, and the Revelation ; which 
books, however, have since been discovered in 
that language in some ancient manuscripts of 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



157 



Europe. But in this collection, no other book 
beside what is in ours, appears ever to have had 
a place. And, what is very worthy of observa- 
tion, the text, though preserved in a remote? 
country, and without comnnunication with ours, 
differs from ours very little, and in nothing that is 
important*. 



* Jones on the Canon, vol. i. p. 14» 



I 



THE EVIDENCES 



SECTION VIL 



Our Scriptures were received by ancient Chris-' 
tians of different Sects and Persuasions, by 
many Heretics^ as well as Catholics^ and ivere 
usually appealed to by both Sidts in the Contro- 
*cersi6s zvhich arose in those days. 

T HE three most ancient topics of controversy 
amongst Christians, were, the authority of the 
Jewish institution, the origin of evil, and the nature 
of Christ. Upon the first of these, we find, in 
very early times, one class of heretics rejecting the 
Old Testament entirely; another, contending for 
the obligation of its law, in all its parts, throughout 
its whole extent, and over every one who sought 
acceptance with God. Upon the two latter sub- 
jects, a natural, perhaps, and venial, but a fruitless, 
eager, and impatient curiosity, prompted by the 
philosophy and by the scholastic habits of the age, 
which carried men much into bold hypotheses and 
conjectural solutions, raised, amongst some who 
professed Christianity, very wild and unfounded 
opinions. I think there is no reason to believe 
that the number of these bore any considerable pro- 
portion to the body of the Christian church ; and, 
amidst the disputes which such opinions necessarily 
occasioned, it is a great satisfaction to perceive, 
what in a vast plurality of instances we do per- 
ceive, all sides recurring to the same Scriptures. 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



159 



I. * Basilides lived near the age of the apostles 
about the year 120, or perhaps sooner f. He re- 
jected the Jewish institution, not as spurious, but 
as proceeding from a being inferior to the true God ; 
and in other respects advanced a scheme of theology 
widely different from the general doctrine of the 
Christian church, and which, as it gained over 
some disciples, was warmly opposed by Christian 
writers of the second and third century. In these 
writings there is positive evidence that Basilides 
received the Gospel of Matthew ; and there is no 
sufficient proof that he rejected any of the other 
three; on the contrary, it appears that he wrote a 
commentary upon the Gospel, so copious as to be 
divided into twenty-four books J. 

IL The Valentinians appeared about the same 
time§. Their heresy consisted in certain notions 
concerning angelic natures, which can hardly be 
rendered intelligible to a modern reader. They 
seem, however, to have acquired as much import- 
ance as any of the separatists of that early pge. Of 
this sect, Irenaeus, who wrote A. D. 172, expressly 
records, that they endeavoured to fetch arguments 
for their opinions from the angelic and apostolic 
writings ||. Heracelon, one of the most celebrated 
of the sect, and who lived probably so early as the 
year 125, wrote commentaries upon Luke and 
John^. Some observations also of his upon 
Matthew are preserved by Origen Nor is there 



* The nnatcHals of the former part of tiiis section are taken from 
Br. Lardner's History of the Heretics of the two first Centuries, 
published since his death, with additions, by the Rev. Mr. Hogg, 
of Exeter, and inserted into the ninth volume of his works, of the 
edition of 1783. i 

+ Lard. Toi. ix. p. 271. + lb. ed. 1788. p. 30-5, 396. 

^ lb. p. 350, 351. [j lb. vol. i. p. 383. 

% lb. vol. ix. 1783; p. 388. ** lb. p. 353. 



}i)0 THE EV IDENCEb 

any reason to doubt that he received the uhoie 
New Testament. 

III. The Carpocratians * were also an early he- 
resy, little, if at all, later than the two preceding. 
Some of their opinions resembled what we at this 
day mean by Socinianism. With respect to the 
Scriptures, they are specifically charged, by Ire- 
naeusand by Epiphanius, with endeavouring to per- 
vert a passage in Matthew, which amounts to a po- 
sitive proof that they received that Gospel f- Ne- 
gatively, they are not accused by their adversaries 
of rejecting any part of the New Testament. 

IV. The -Sethians, A. D. 150 J; the Monta- 
nists, A. D. 156 § ; the Marconians, A. D. l60\\; 
Hermogenes, A. D. ISO^f ; Praxias, A. D. 196^** ; 
Artenjon, A. D. 200 ft ; Theodotus, A. D. 200 ; 
all inchjded under the denomination of heretics, and 
ail e'^jgaged in controversies with Catholic Chris- 
tians, received the Scriptures of the New Testament. 

V. Tatian, who lived in the year 172, went into 
many extravagant opinions, was the founder of a 
sect called Eucratites, and was deeply involved in 
disputes with the Christians of that age ; yet Ta- 
tian so received the four Gospels as to compose a 
harmony from them. 

VL From a writer, quoted by Eusebius, of about 
the year 200, it is apparent that they who at that 
time contended for the mere humanity of Christ, 
argued from the Scriptures ; for they are accused 



* Lard. vol. ix. ed. 1788. p. 309. 
i lb. p. 455. 
II lb. p. 34e. 
lb. p. 433. 



t lb. p. 318. 
^ lb. p. 432. 
if lb. p. 473. 
ff lb. p. 460. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



161 



. by this writer, of making alterations in their copies, 
in order to favour their opinions *. 

VIL Origen's sentiments excited great contro- 
versies ; the bishops of Rome and Alexandria^ and 
many others, condemning the bishops of the East 
espousing them ; yet there is not the smallest ques- 
tion but that both the advocates and adversaries 
of these opinions acknowledged the same autho- 
rity of scripture. In his time, which the reader 
will remember was about one hundred and fifty 
years after the Scriptures were pubhshed, many 
dissentions subsisted among Christians, with v/hich 
they were reproached by Celsus ; yet Origen, who 
has recorded th's accusation widiout contradicting 
it, nevertheless testifies, that the Four Gospels 
were received without dispute^ by the whole church 
of God under Heaven 'j\ 

VIII. Paul of Samosata, about thirty years after 
Origen, so distinguished himself in the controversy 
concerning the nature of Christ, as fo be the sub- 
ject of two councils, or synods, assembled at An- 
tioch, upon his opinions ; yet he is not charged 
by his adversaries with rejecting any book of the 
New Testament. On the contrary, Epiphanius, 
who WTote a history of heretics a hundred years 
afterwards, says that Paul endeavgured to support 
his doctrine by texts of scripture ; and Vincentius 
Lirinensis, A. D. 434, speaking of Paul and other 
heretics of the same age, has these words : " Here, 
perhaps^ some one may ask, whether heretics also 
urge the testimony of Scripture. They urge it in- 
deed, explicitly and vehemently ; for you may see 
them flymg through every book of the sacred law}:." 



* Lard. vol. iii. p. 46. 
f Lardner, vol. iv. p. 642. % lb. vol. xi. p. 158. 



16^ 



THE EVIDENCES 



IX. A controversy at the same time exfsted with 
the Noetians, or Sabellians, who seem to have 
gone into the opposite extreme from that of Paul 
of Samosata and his followers. Yet, according to 
the express testimony of Epiphanius, Sabellius re- 
ceived all the Scriptures ; and with both sects Ca- 
tholic writers constantly allege the Scriptures, and 
reply to the arguments which their opponents drew 
from particular texts. 

We have here, therefore, a proof that parties, 
who were the niost opposite and irreconcileable ta 
one another, acknowledged the authority of Scrip- 
ture with equal deference. 

X. And as a general testimony to the same 
point, may be produced what was said by one of 
the bishops of the Council of Carthage, which was 
holden a little before this time : — ''I am of opi- 
nion that blasphemous and wicked heretics, who 
pervert the sacred and adorable words of the 
Scriptures, should be execrated Undoubtedly, 
what they perverted they received. 

XI. The Millennium, Novatianism, the baptism 
of heretics, the keeping of Easter, engaged also the 
attention, and divided the opinions of Christians 
at and before that time (and, by the w-ay, it may- 
be observed, that such disputes, though on some 
accounts to be blamed, shewed how much men 
were in earnest upon the subject); yet every one ap- 
pealed for the grounds of his opinion to Scrip- 
ture authority. Dionysius of Alexandria, who 
flourished A. D. £47, describing a conference, or 
public disputation, with the Millennarians of Egypt, 
confesses of them, though their adversary, " that 



* Lardner, yol. xi. p. 839. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



163 



they embraced whatever could be made out by good 
arguments from the holy Scriptures f/' Novatus, 
A. D. 251, distinguished by some rigid sentiments 
concerning the reception of those who had lapsed, 
and the founder of a numerous sect, in his few i e- 
inaining works quotes the Gospel with the same 
respect as other Christians did ; and concerning 
his followers, the testimony of Socrates, who wrote 
about the year 440, is positive, viz. That in the 
disputes between the CathoHcs and them, each side 
endeavoured to support itself by the authority of 
the Divine Scriptures 

XII. The Donatists, who sprung up in the year 
328, used the same Scriptures as we do. ^' Produce 
Csaith Augustine) some proof from the Scriptures^ 
whose authority is common to us both 

XIII. It is perfectly notorious, that in the Arian 
controversy, which arose soon after the year 300, 
both sides appealed to the same Scriptures, and 
with equal professions of deference and legard. 
The Arians, in their Council of Antioch, A. D. 
341, pronounce, that " if any one, contrary to the 
sound doctrine of the Scriptures, say that the Son 
is a creature, as one of the creatures, let him be 
anathema They and the Athanasians mutually 
accuse each other of using unscriptural phrases : 
which was a mutual acknowledgement of the con- 
clusive authority of Scripture. 

XIV. The Priscillianists, A. D. 378 i|, the Pe-- 
lagians, A. D. 40o % received the same Scriptures 
as we do. 



+ Lard, vol iv. p. 666. 
t I!>. \ol. vil p. 243. 
\ lb- -sol. p. M. 



* lb. \oI. Y. p. 105. 
^ lb. \oL Yii. p. 277; 
f[ lb. xi. p. s*2 



364 



THE EVIDENCES 



XV. The testimony of Chrysostom, who lived 
near the year 400, is so positive in affirmation of 
the proposition which w^e maintain, that it may form 
a proper conciusion of the argument. " The general 
reception of the Gospels is a proof that their his- 
tory is true and consistent ; for since the writing of 
the Gospels, many heretics have arisen, holding 
opinions contrary to what is contained in them, 
who yec receive the Gospels either entire or in 
part*." I am not moved by what may seem a de» 
duction from Cljrysostom's testimony, the words 

entire or in part for, if all the parts which 
were ever questioned in our Gospels were given 
up, it would not affect the miraculous origin of the 
religion in the smallest degree : e. g\ 

Cerinthus is said by Epiphanius to have re- 
ceived the Gospel of Matthew, but not entire. What 
the omissions were does not appear. The common 
opinion, that he rejected the two first chapters^ 
seems to have been a mistake f. It is agreed, 
however, by all who have given any account of 
Cerinthus, that he taught that the Holy Ghost 
(whether he meant by that name a person or a 
power) descended upon Jesus at his baptism ; that 
Jebus from this time performed many miracles, and 
that he appeared after his death. He must have 
retained, therefore, the essential parts of the his- 
tory. 

Of all the ancient heretics, the most extraordi- 
nary was i\Iarcion One of his tenets was the 
rejection of the Old Testament, as proceeding from 
an inferior and iinperfect Deity ; and in pursuance 



^ Lard. \qL x. p. 3iG. 

r lb. \ol. ix. cd. 1788 y. 322. 

j lb. sect. ii. c. X. Also Michatl. vol. i. c. i. sect, xviii. 



OF CIIRISTIANITY- 



l65 



of this hypothesis, he erased from the New, and 
that, as it should seem, without entering into any 
critical reasons, every passage Avhich recognised 
the Jewish Scriptures. He spared not a text that 
contradicted his opinion. It is reasonable to believe 
that Marcion treated books as he treated texts ; 
yet this rash and wild controversialist published 
a recension, or chastised edition, of Saint Luke's 
Gospel, containing the leading facts, and all which 
is necessary to authenticate the rehgion. This ex- 
ample affords proof, that there were always some 
points, and those the main points, which neither 
wildness nor rashness, neither the fury of opposi- 
tion, nor the intemperance of controversy, would 
venture to call in question. There is no reason to 
believe that Marcion, though full of resentnjent 
against the Catholic Christians, ever charged them 
with forging their books. " The Gospel of Saint, 
Matthew, the Episde to the Hebrews, with those 
of Saint Peter and Saint James, as well as the Old 
Testament in general (he said) were writings not 
for Christians, but for Jews This declaration 
shews the ground upon which Marcion proceeded 
in his mutilation of the Scriptures, viz. his dislike 
of the passages or the books. Marcion flourished 
about the year 130. 

Dr. Lardner, in his General Review, sums up 
this head of evidence in the following words : — 

Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Marcellus, 
Photinus, the Novatians, Donatisis, Manicheans 
Priscillianists, besides Artemon, the Audians, the 



* 1 have transcribed tliis sentence from Michaelis (p. 38.) who 
has not, however, referred to the authority upon which he attributes 
these words to Marcion. 

t This tniist be with an exception, however, of F*«sl«s^whe 
lived so late as the year 385. 



166 



THE EVIDENCES 



Arians, and divers others, all received most or all 
the same books of the New Testament which the 
Catholics received, and agreed in a like respect for 
them as writ by apostles, or their disciples and 
companions*." 



* Lardner, vol. xii. p 12. — Dr Lardner's ftiture inquiries sup- 
plied him with many other instances. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



167 



SECTION VIIL 

The Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Thir- 
teen Epistles of Saint Paul, the First Epistle 
of John, and the First of Peter, xcere received, 
without doubt, by those mho doubted concerning 
the other Books which are included in our pre- 
sent Canon. 

I STATE this proposition, because, if made out, 
it shews that the authenticity of their books was a 
subject amongst the early Christians of considera- 
tion and inquiry ; and that, where there was cause 
of doubt, they did doubt : a circumstance which 
strengthens very much their testimony to such booi^s 
as were received by them with full acquiescence. 

I. Jerome, in his account of Caius, who was 
probably a presbyter of Rome, and who flourished 
near the year 200, records of him, that, reckoning 
up ojily thirteen epistles of Paul, he says, the four- 
teenth, which is inscribed to the Hebrews, is not 
his; and then Jerome adds, " With the Romans 
to this day it is not looked upon as Pauls." This 
agrees, in the main, with the account given by Eu- 
sebius of the sanae ancient author and his woi k, — 
except that Eusebius delivers his own remark in 
more guarded terms : — And indeed to this very 
time, by some of the Romans^ this epistle is not 
thought to be the apostle s 

II. Ori'gen, about twenty years after Caius, 
quoting the epistle to the Hebrews, observes that 



* Lard. \ol. iii- p. 24p. 



168 



THE EVIDENCES 



some might dispute tlie authority of that epistle, 
and therefore proceeds to quote to the same point, 
as undoubted books of Scripture, the Gospel of St. 
Matthew, the Acts of the Aposiles, and Paul's First 
Episiie to the Thessalonians ^ ; and in another 
place, this author speaks of the Epistle to the He- 
brews thus : — " The account come down to us is 
various, some saying that Clement, who was bishop 
of Rome, wrote this epistle ; others that it was 
Luke, the same who writ the Gospel and the Acts." 
S[)eaking also, in the same paragraph, of Peter, 
" Peter (says he) has left one epistle acknowledg- 
ed ; let It be granted likewise that he wrote a se- 
cond ; for it is doubted of" And of John, He 
has also left one epistle, of a very fevv lines; grant 
also a second and a third, for all do not allow these 
to be genuine." Now let it be noted, that Origen, 
w^ho thus discriminates, and thus confesses his own 
doubts, and the doubts which subsisted ia his time, 
expressly witnesses concerning the Four Gospels, 
" that they alone are received without dispute by 
the whole church of God under Heaven f ." 

III. Dionysius of Alexandria, in the year 247, 
doubts concerning the Book of Revelation, whether 
it was written by Saint John ; states the grounds of 
his doubt, represents the diversity of opinion con- 
cerning it, in his own time, and before his time J. 
Yet the same Dionysius uses and collates the Four 
Gospels in a n^anner also which shews that he en- 
tertained not the sQ^allest suspicion of their autho- 
rity, and in a manner also which shews that they, 
and they alone, were received as authentic histories 
of Christ 



* Lard- vol- iii. p. 246. 
+ lb. vol. iv. p. 670- 



lb. p. 234. 

b- p. 661. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



169 



IV. Bat this section may be said to have been 
framed on purpose, to introduce to the reader two 
remarkable passages extant in Eusebius's Ecclesi- 
astical History. The first passage opens with 
these words : — Let us observe the writings of the 
aposde John, which are uncontradicted ; and, first 
of all, must be mentioned, as acknowledged of all, 
the Gospel according to him, well known to all the 
churches under Heaven. The author then pro- 
ceeds to relate the occasions of writing the Gos- 
pels, and the reasons for placing Saint John's the 
last, manifestly speaking of all the four as parallel 
in their authority, and in the certainty of their 
original*. The second passage is taken from a 
chapter, the tide of which is, " Of the Scriptures 
imvoersally acknowledged, and of those that are 
not such. ' Eusebius begins*^ his enumeration in 
the following manner : — " In the first place, are 
to be ranked the sacred Four Gospels ; then the 
Book of the Acts of the Apostles ; after that are to 
be reckoned the Epistles of Paul. In the next 
place, that called the First Epistle of John, and die 
EpisUe of Peter, are to be esteemed authendc. 
After this is to be placed, if it be thought lit, the 
Revelation of John, about which we shall observe 
the different opinions at proper seasons. Of the 
controverted, but yet well known, or aj)proved by 
the most, are, that called the Epistle of James, and 
that of Jude, and the Second of Peter, and the 
Second and Third of John, whether they are written 
by the evangelist, or another of the same name f." 
He then proceeds to reckon up five others, not in 
our canon, which he calls in one plsice sptnio us ; in 
■duoihev controverted ; meaning, as appears to me, 
nearly the same thing by these two words 



* Lardner, vol. viii. p. 00. f lb. p. 89. 

1 That Eusebius could not iutcud, by the word rendered " spu- 



170 



THE EVIDENCES 



It is manifest from this passage, that the four 
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (the parts of 
Scripture with which our account principally lies) 
were acknowledged without dispute, even by those 
who raised objections, or entertained doubts about 
some other parts of the same collection. But the 
passage pro\es something more than this. The 
author was extremely conversant in the writings of 
Christians, which had been published from the 
commencement of the institution to his own time ; 
and it was from these writings that he drew his know- 
ledge of the character and reception of the books 
in question. That Eusebius recurred to this me- 
dium of information, and that he had examined 
with attention this species of proof, is shou n, first, 
by a passage in the very chapter we are quoting; 
in which, speaking of the books Avhich he calls 
spurious, None (he says) of the ecclesiastical 
writers, in the succession of the apostles, have 
vouchsafed to make any mention of them in their 
writings ;" and, secondly, bv^ another passage of 
the same work, wijerein, speaking of the First 
Epistle of Peter, " This (he says) the presbyters of 
ancient times have quoted in their writings as un- 
doubtedly genuine * and then, speaking of some 
other writmgs bearing the name of Peter, We 
know (he says) that they have not been delivered 
dpwp to us in the number of Catholic writings, for- 
asmuch ns no ecclesiastical wi iters of the ancient, 
or of our times, has made use of testimonies out of 
them." " But in the progress of this history," the 
author proceeds, " we shall make it our business to 



jrioiis," what we at present mean by it, is evident from a clause in 
this ver}^ chapter ; vvliere, speaking of the Gospels of Peter and 
Thomas, and Matthias, and some others, he says, "They are not so 
miicli as to t)c reclvoned among the spurious, hut are to be rejected 
as altogether absurd and impious '' — Lardner, vol. >'iii. p. ^S* 
^ Lardner, vol. viii. p. 1)9. 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



171 



show, together with the successions from the apos- 
tles, what ecclesiastical writers, in every age, have 
used such writings as these which are contradicted, 
and what they have said with regard to the Scrip- 
tures received in the New Testament, and acknow- 
ledged by all, and with regard to those which are 
not such 

After this it is reasonable to believe, that when 
Eusehius states the Four Gospels, and the Acts of 
the Apostles, as uncontradicted, uncontested, and 
acknowledged by all ; and vvhen he places them in 
opposition, not only to those which were spurious 
in our sense of that term, but to those which were 
controverted, and even to those w^hich were well 
known and approved by many, yet doubted of by 
some, — he represents not only the sense of his own 
age, but the result of the evidence which the writ- 
ings of prior ages, from the apostles' time to his 
own, had furnished to bis inquiries. The opinion 
of Eusebius and his contemporaries appear to 
have been founded upon the testimony of writers, 
whom they then called Ancient ; and we may ob- 
serve, that such of the works of these writers as 
have come down to our times, entirely confirm the 
judgment^ and support the distinction which Euse- 
bius proposes. The books, which he calls " books 
universally acknowledged,'' are in fact used and 
quoted in the remaining works of Christian writers 
during the 250 years between the apostles' time and 
that of P'usebius, much more frequently than, and 
in a different manner from those, the authority of 
which, he tells us, was disputed. 



* Lardner, vol. yiii, p. 1 il. 



172 



THE EVIDENCES 



SECTION IX. 

Our Historical Scriptures were attacked by the 
early Adversaries of Christianity^ as containing 
the Accounts upon zvhich the Religion was 
founded, 

I. ^N^EAR the middle of the second century, Cel- 
sus, a heathen philosopher, wrote a professed 
treatise against Christianity, To this treatise, Ori- 
gen, who came about fifty years after him, publish- 
ed an answer, in which he frequently recites his 
;adversary's words and arguments. The work of 
Celsias is lost ; but that of Origen remains. Ori- 
gen appears to have given us the words of Celsus ; 
where he professes to give them very faithfully ; 
and, amongst other reasons for thinking so, this is 
one, that the objection, as stated by him from Cel- 
sus, is sometimes stronger than his own answer. I 
think it is also probable that Origen, in his answer, 
has retailed a large portion of the works of Celsus : 

That it may not be suspected The says) that we 
pass by any chapters, because we have no answers 
at hand, I have thought it best, according to my 
ability, to confute every thing proposed by him, 
not so much observing the natural order of things, 
as the order which he has taken himseU 

Celsus wrote about one hundred years after the 
Gospels were published : and therefore any notices 
of these books from him are extremely important 
for their antiquity. They are, however, rendered 
more so by the character of the author; for tne 



* Or. eont. G€is. 1. i. s««t.4i. 



OF CHRIST IAN IT V. 



reception, credit, and notoriety of tliese books must 
have been well established amongst Christians, to 
have made them subjects of animadversion and 
opposition by strangers and by enemies. It 
evinces the truth of what Chrysostom, two centu- 
ries afterwards, observed, that ^^the Gospels, when 
written, were not hid in a corner, or buried in ob- 
scurity, but they were madfe known to all the world ; 
before enemies as well as others, even as they are 
now=^." 

1. Celsus, or the Jew whom he personates, 
uses these words : — I could say many things 
concerning the affairs of Jesus, and those, too, dif- 
ferent from those written by the disciples of Jesus ; 
but I purposely omit thenif." Upon this passage 
it has been rightly observed, that it is not easy to 
believe, that if Celsus could have contradicted the 
disciples upon good evidence in any material point, 
he would have omitted to do so ; and that the asser- 
tion is, what Origen calls it, a mere oratorical 
flourish. 

It is sufficient, however, to prove, that, in the 
time of Celsus, there were books well known, and 
allowed to be written by the disciples of Jesus ; 
which books contained a history of him. By the 
term disciple, Celsus does not mean the followers 
of Jesus in general, for them he calls Christians, 
or believers, or the like, but those who had been 
taught by Jesus himself, i. e. his apostles and com- 
panions. 

2. In another passage, Celsus accuses the 
Christians of altering the Gospel The accusa- 
tion refers to some variations in the reading of 
particular passages ; for Celsus goes on to object, 
that when they are pressed hard, and one reading 

* In Matt. Horn. i. 7. 

f Larducr's Jewish and Heathea Test. vol. ii- p. ^74. 
t Larduer, vol. ii. p. 273. 



174 



THE EVIDENCES 



has been confuted, they disown that, and fly to ano- 
ther. We cannot perceive from Origen that Cel- 
sus specified any particular instances ; and without 
such specification the charge is of no value. But 
the true conclusion to be drawn from it is, that 
there were in the hands of the Ciiristians, histories, 
which were even then of some standing; for vari- 
ous readings and corruptions do not take place in 
recent productions. 

The former quotation, the reader will remember, 
■ proves that these books were composed by the 
disciples of Jesus, strictly so called; the present 
quotation shows, tliat, though objections were taken 
by the adversaries of the religion to the integrity of 
these books, none were made to their genuineness. 

3. In a third passage, the Jew, whom Celsus in- 
troduces, shuts up an argument in this manner: — 
" These things then we have alleged to you, out 
of ?/Cwr ozvn writings ; not needing any other 
weapons*." It is manifest that this boast proceeds 
upon the supposition that the books, over which 
the writer afiiects to triumph, possessed an autho- 
rity by which Christians confessed themselves to be 
bound. 

4. That the books to which Celsus refers were 
no other than our present Gospels, is made out by 
his allusions to various passages still found in these 
Gospels. Celsus takes notice of the genealogies, 
which fixes two of these Gospels : of the precepts, 
Resist not him that injures you ; and, if a man 
strike thee on the one cheek, offer to him the other 
alsof; of the woes denounced by Christ ; of his 
predictions ; of his saying that it is impossible to 
serve two masters J ; of the purple robe, the crown 



* Lardner, Toi. ii. p- 276. i lb- p. 216. 

X lb. p. 277. 



Of CHRI^TIANlTr. 



of thorns, and the reed in his hand ; of thd blood 
that flowed from the body of Jesus on the cross * ; 
which circumstance is recorded by John alone ; 
aod (what is instar onmiiiyn for the purpose for 
which we pioduce it) of the difterence in the ac- 
counts given of the resurrection by the evangehsts ; 
some mentioning two angels at the sepulchre, others 
only one f . 

It is extremely material to remark, that Celsus 
not only perpetually referred to the accounts of 
Christ contained in the four Gospels but that he 
referred to no other accounts ; that he founded 
none of his objections to Christianity upon any 
thing delivered in spurious Gospels. 

II. What Celsus was in the second century, Por- 
phyry became in the third. His work, which was 
a large and formal treatise against the Christian 
religion, is not extant. We must be content there- 
fore to gather his objections from Chi istian writers, 
who have noticed, in order to answer them ; and 
enough remains of this species of information to 
prove completely that Porphyry s animadversions 
were directed against the contc-nts of our present 
Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles ; Por- 
phyry considering, that to overthrow them^ w as to 
overthrovv the religion. Tiius he objects to the re- 
petition of a generation in Saint Matthew s gene- 
iilogy ; to Matthew's call; to the quotation of a 
text from Isaiah, which is found in a psalm ascribed 
to Asaph ; to the calling the Lake of Tiberius a 
sea ; to the expression m Saint Matthew, " the 
abomination of desolation ;" to the variations in 
Matthew and Mark upon the text, "The voice of 



• Lardner, vol. ii, p. 280, 281- + lb. p. 282. 

X The particulars, of which the aboye arc only a few, are well 
collected by Mr, Brjant, p. 140, 



176 



THE EVIDENCES 



one crying in the wilderness," Matthew citing it 
from Isjiias, Mark from the Prophets ; to John s 
apphcation of the term Word to Christ's change 
of intention about going up to the Feast of Taber- 
nacles (John vii. 8 ) ; to the judgment denounced 
by Saint Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira, which 
he calls an imprecation of death *. 

The instances here alleged, serve, in some 
measure, to show the nature of Porphyry's objec- 
tions, and prove that Porphyry had read the Gos- 
pels with that sort of attention which a writer would 
employ who regarded them as the depositories of 
the religion which he attacked. Beside these spe- 
cifications, there exists, in the writings of ancient 
Christians, general evidence, that the places of 
Scripture upon which Porphyry had remarked, 
were very numerous. 

In some of the above-cited examples, Porphyry, 
speaking of Saint Matthew, calls him T/om^ evange- 
list ; he also uses the term evangelists in the plural 
number. What was said of Celsus is true likewise 
of Porphyry, that it does not appear that he consi- 
dered any history of Christ, except these, as having 
authority with Christians. 

III. A third great writer against the Christian 
religion was the emperor Julian, whose work was 
composed about a century after that of Porphyry. 

In various long extracts, transcribed from this 
work by Cyril and Jerome, it appears f that Julian 
noticed bi/ name Matthew and Luke, in the dif- 
ference between their genealogies of Christ ; that 
he objected to Matthew's application of the pro- 
phecy, Oui of Egypt have I called my son,** 



* Jewish and Heathen Test, vol. in. p 166, et seq. 
+ lb- vol- iv. p. T7; etseq. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



177 



(ii. 15) ; and to that of*' a virgin shall conceive" 
(i. 23) ; that he recited sayings of Christ, and va- 
rious passages of his history, in the very words of 
the evangelists ; in particular, that Jesus healed 
lame and blind people and exorcised demoniacs in 
the villages of Bethsaida and Bethany ; that he 
alleged that none of Christ's disciples ascribed to 
him the creation of the world, except John ; that 
neither Paul, nor Matthew, nor Luke, nor Mark,^ 
have dared to call Jesus God ; that John wrote 
later than the other evangelists, and at a time when 
a great number of men in the cities of Greece and 
Italy were converted ; that he alludes to the con- 
version of Cornelius and of Sergius Paulus, to 
Peters vision, to the circular letter sent by the 
apostles and elders at Jerusalem, which are all re- 
corded in the Acts of the Apostles; by which 
quoting of the four Gospels and the Acts of the 
Apostles, and by quoting no other, Julian shews 
that these were the historical books, and the only 
historical books received by the Christians as of 
authority, and as the authentic memoirs of Jesus 
Christ, of his apostles, and of the doctrines tauo;ht 
by them : but JuUan's testimony does something 
more than represent the judgment of the Christian 
church in his time ; — it discovers also his own. He 
himself expressly states the early date of these re- 
cords : he calls them by the names which thev now 
bear. He all along supposes, he nowhere attempts 
to question, their genuineness. 

The argument in favour of the books of the New 
Testament, drawn from the notice taken of their 
contents by the early writers against the religion, 
is very considerable. It proves that the accounts 
which Christians had then, were the accounts which 
we have now ; that our present Scriptures were 
theirs. It proves, moreover, that neither CeLus 
in the second, Porphyry in the third, nor Julian in 

N 



178 THE EVIDENCEiS 

the fourth century, suspected the authenticity of 
these books, qr even insinuated that Christians 
were mistaken in the authors to whoni they ascribed 
them. Nqt one of them expressed an opinion upon 
this subject different frprp that which was holden 
by Christians ; and when we consider how much it 
would have availed them to cast a doubt upon this 
point, if ihey could, — and how ready they she^ved 
themselves to be to take every advantage in their 
power, — and that they were all men of learning 
and inquiry, their concession, or rather their suf- 
frage upon the subject, is extremely valuable. 

I In the ca^e of Porphyry it is made still stronger, 
by the consideration that he did in fact support 
himself by this species of objection, when he saw 
any room for it, or when his acuteness CQuld supply 
any pretence for alleging it. The prophecy of 
Daniel he attacked qpon this very ground of spuri- 
qusness, insisting that it was written after the time 
of Antiochus Ilpiphanes ; and maintains his charge 
of forgery by some, far-fetched indeed, but very 
subtle criticisms. Concerning the writings of the 
New Testanrient, no trace of this suspicion is any- 
where to be founcj in him 



* Micliaelis's Introduction to the New Testamentj vol. i. p. 43., 
Marsh's Translation. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



179 



SECTION X. 

Formal Catalogues of authentic Scriptures were 
published ; in all of which our present Sacred 
Histories zvere included, 

TTijis species of evidence comes later than the 
rest, as it was not natural that catalogues of any 
particular class of books should be put forth until 
Christian writings became numerous ; or until some 
writings shewed themselves, claiming titles which 
did not belong to them, and thereby rendering it 
neces ary to separate books of authority from 
others ; but, when it does appear, it is extremely 
satisfactory, — the catalogues, though numerous, 
and made in countries at a wide distance from one 
another, differinj^ very little, differing in nothing 
which is material, and all containing the four Gos- 
pels. To this last article there is no exception. 

I. In the writings of Origen which remain, and 
in some extracts preserved by Eusebius, from works 
of his which are now lost, there are enumerations 
of tne books of Scripture, in which the Four Gospels 
and the Acts of the Apostles are distinctly and 
honourably specified, and in which no books ap- 
pear beside what are now received *. The reader, 
by this time, will easily recollect that the date of 
(3rigen's works is A. D. 230. 

II. Athanasius, about a century afterwards, de- 
livered a catalogue of the books of the New Tes- 



* Lard. Cied. vol. iii. p. 234, et seq. ; vol. viii- p. 196. 



180 



THE EVIDENCES 



tament in form, containing our Scriptures and no 
others ; of whicli he says, " In these alone the doc- 
trine of Religion is taught ; let no man add to 
them, nor take any thing from them 

in. .About 20 years after Athanasius, Cyril, 
bishop of Jerusalem, set forth a catalogue of the 
books of Scripture publicly read at that time in the 
church of Jerusalem, exactly the same as ours, ex- 
cept that the Revelation is omitted 

IV. And, fifteen years after Cyril, the council of 
Laodicea delivered an authoritative catalogue of 
canonical Scripture, like Cyril's, the same as ours, 
with the omission of the Revelation, 

V. Catalogues have now become frequent. — 
Within thirty years after the last date, that is, from 
the year 363 to near the conclusion of the fourth 
century, we have catalogues by EpiphaniusJ, by 
Gregory Nazienzen §, by Philaster, bishop of Bres- 
cia, in Italy ||, by Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium ; 
all, as they are sometimes called, clean Catalogues 
(that is, they admit no books into the number beside 
M'hat we now receive) ; and all, for every purpose 
of historic evidence, the same as ours ^. 

VI. Within the same period, Jei^ome, the most 
learned Christian writer of his age, dehvered a ca- 
talogue of the books of the New Testament, recog- 
nising every book now received, with the intima- 
tion of a doubt concerning the Epistle to the He- 



* Lard. Cred. vol. viii. p. 228. -I- lb- p- 270. % lb. p. 368. 
§ lb. \'oi. ix. p. 132. II lb. p. 378. 

^ Epipliaiiiiis omits the Acts of the Apostles. This must have 
beeu an accidental mistake, either in him, or in some copyist of his 
work ; for he elsewhere expressly refers to the book, and ascribes 
it to Luke. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



181 



brews alone, and taking not the least notice of any 
book which is not now received 

VII. Contemporary with Jerome, who lived in 
Palestine, was Saint Augustine, in Africa, who pub- 
lished likewise a catalogue, without joining to the 
Scriptures, as books of authority, any other eccle- 
siastical writing whatever, and without omitting 
one which we at this day acknowledge f. 

VIII. And with these concurs another contem- 
porary writer, Rufen, presbyter of Aquileia, whose 
catalogue, like theirs, is perfect and unmixed ; and 
concludes with these remarkable words : — " These 
are the volumes vvhich the fathers have included in 
the canon, and out of which they would have us 
prove the doctrine of our faith 



* Lard. Cred- vol. x. p. 77. + lb- p. 213- 

§ lb. p. 187. 



THE EVIDENCES 



SECTION Xi. 

These Propositions cannot be predicated of any of 
the Books which are commonly called Apocry- 
phal Books of the Nexv Testament, 

I BO not know that the objection taken from apo- 
eryphal writings is at present much rehed upon by 
scholars : but there are many who, hearing that va- 
rious gospels existed in ancient times, under the 
names of the apostles, may have taken up a notion, 
that the selection of our present Gospels from the 
rest, was rather an arbitrary or accidental choice, 
than founded in any clear and certain cause of 
preference. To these it may be very useful to know 
the truth of the case. I observe, therefore, 

I. That, beside our Gospels and the Acts of the 
Apostles, no Christian history, claiming to be writ- 
ten by an apostle or apostolical man, is quoted 
within three hundred years after the birth of Christ, 
by any writer now extant or known ; or, if quoted, 
is not quoted without marks of censure and re- 
jection. 

I have not advanced this assertion without en- 
quiry ; and, I doubt not but that the passages cited 
by Mr. Jones and Dr. Lardner, under the several 
titles which the apocryphal books bear, or a refer- 
ence to the places where tliey are mentioned, as 
collected in a very accurate table, published in the 
year 1773, by the Rev. J.Atkinson, will make oul 
the truth of the proposition to the satistaction of 
every fair and competent judgment. If there be 
any book which may seem to form an exception i% 



CF CHRISTIANITY. 



183 



tlie observation, it is a Hebrew Gospel, which was 
circulated under the various titles of The Gospel 
according to the Hebrexvs, — The Gospel of the 
Nazarenes, — Of the Ebionites, — sometimes called 
Of the Tzcelve^ — by some ascribed to Saint Mat- 
thew. This Gospel is once, and only once, cited 
by Clement Alexandiinus, who lived, the reader 
will remember, in the latter part of the second 
century ; and which same Clement quotes one or 
other of our four Gospels in almost every page of 
his vAork. It is also twice mentioned by Origen^ 
A. D. 230 ; and both times with marks of diminu- 
tion and discredit; and this is the ground upon 
which the exception stands. But what is stiil more 
material to observe is, That this Gospel in the 
main agreed with our present Gospel of Saint Mat- 
thew 

Now if, with this account of the apocryphal 
Gospels, we compare what we have read concern- 
ing the canonical Scriptures in the preceding sec- 
tions, or even recollect that general but well- 
founded assertion of Dr. Lardner's, That in the 
remaining works of Irena?us, Clement of Alexan- 
dria, and Tertullian, who all lived in the first two 
centuries, there are more and larger quotations of 
the small volume of the New Testament, than of all 
the x'^orks of Cicero, by writers of all characters, 
for several ages f f and if to this we add, that, 
notwithstanding the loss of many works of the pri- 
mitive times of Christianity, we have, within the 
above mentioned period, the remains of Christiartr 
writers \a ho lived in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minorj 



* In applying- to this Gospel what Jerome, in' tire latter end of 
the fourth century, has mentioned of a Hebrew Gospel, I think it 
probable that we sometimes confound it with a Hebrew copy of St. 
Matthew's Gospel, whether an original or version, which was then 
«xtant. 

i Lardner's Cied- vol. xii. p: 53- 



184 



T^IE EVIDENCES 



Egypt, the part of Africa that used the Latin 
tongue, in Crete, Greece, Italy, and Gaul, — in all 
which remains, references are found to our evan- 
gelists,^ — I apprehend that we shall perceive a clear 
and broad line of division between those writings 
and all others pretending to similar authority. 

II. But beside certain histories which assumed 
the name of Apostles, and which were y0?'^'er/e,y, 
properly so called, there were some other Christian 
writings, in the whole or in part of an historical 
nature, which, though not forgeries, are denomi- 
nated Jpocryphal, as being of uncertain, or of no 
authority. 

Of this second class of writings I have found 
only two which are noticed by any author of the 
three first centuries, without express terms of con- 
demnation; and these are, the one a book, entitled 
The Preaching of Peter, quoted repeatedly by 
Clement i\lexandrinus, A. 1). 1^6; the other, a 
book entitled The Revelation of Peter; upon 
which the above mentioned Clement Alexandrinus 
is said, by Eusebius, to have written notes ; and 
which is twice cited in a work still extant, ascribed 
to the same author. 

I conceive, therefore, that the proposition we 
have before advanced, even afier it hath been sub- 
jected to every exception of every kind that can 
be alleged, separates, by a wide interval, our histo- 
rical Scriptures from all other w-ritings which pro- 
fess to give an account of the same subject. 
We may be permitted, however, to add, 

1. That there is no evidence that any spurious 
or apocryphal books whatever existed in the first 
century of the Christian a^ra ; in which century all 
our historical books are proved to have been ex- 
tant. " There are no quotations of any such books 
in the apostolical fathers, by whom I mean Barna- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



185 



has, CienK^ntof Rome, Ilermas, Ignatius, and Poly- 
carp, whose writings reach from about the year of 
our Lord 70 to the >^ear 108" (and some of whom 
have quoted each and every one of our historicai 
Scriptures) ; 1 say this," adds Dr Lardner, " be- 
cause I think it has been proved*." 

^i. These apocryphal writings were not read iu 
the churches of Christians ; 

3. Were not admitted into their volume ; 

4. Do not appear in tlieir catalogues ; 

5. Were not noticed by their adversaries ; 

6. Were not alleged by different parties, as of 
authority in their controversies ; 

7. Were not the subjects amongst them of com- 
mentaries, versions, collations, expositions. 

Finally. Beside the silence of three centuries, or 
evidence within that time, of their rejection, they 
were, with a consent nearly universal, reprobated 
by Christian writers of succeeding ages. 

Although it be made out by these observations, 
that the books in question never obtained any de- 
gree of credit and notoriety which can place them 
in competition with our Scriptures, yet it appears, 
from the writings of the fourth century, that many 
such existed in that century, and in the century 
preceding it. It may be difficult, at this distance 
of time, to account for their origin. Perhaps, the 
most probable explication is, That they were in ge- 
neral composed widi a design of making a profit 
by the sale: — whatever treated of this subject 
would find purchasers. It was an advantage taken 
of the pious curiosity of unlearned Christians. 
With a view to the same purpose, they were many 
of them adapted to the particular opinions of par- 
ticular sects, which would naturally promote their 



* Lard. Cred. yoL xii. p. 168. 



186 THE EVIDENCE^ 

circulation amongst the favourers of those opinion^. 
After all, they were probably much more obscure 
than we imagine. Exce[)t the Gospel according 
to the Hebrews, there is none of which we hear 
more than the Gospel of the Egyptians ; yet there 
is good reason to believe that Clemfent, a presbyter 
of Alexandria, in Egypt, A. D. 484, and a man of 
almost universal readinsj, had never seen it *. A 
Gospel according to Peter, was another of the 
most ancient books of this kind ; yet Serap^ion, 
bishop of Antioch, A. D. 200, had not read it when 
he heard of such a book being in th^j hands of the 
Christians of Rhossus, in Cilicia; and speaks of 
obtaining a sight of this Gospel from some secta- 
ries who used itf. Even of the Gospel of the He- 
brews, which confessedly stands at the head of the 
catalogue, Jerome, at the end of the fourth century, 
was glad to procure a copy by the favour of the 
Nazarenes of Berea. Nothing of this sort ever 
happened, or could have happened, concerning our 
Gospels. 

One thing is observable of all the apocryphal 
Christian w ritings, viz. That they proceed upon the 
same fundamental history of Christ and his apos- 
tles, as that which is disclosed in our Scriptures. 
The mission of Christ, his power of working mi- 
racles, his communication of that power to the 
apostles, his passion, death, and resurrection, are 
assumed or asserted by every one of them. The 
names under whicli some of them came forth, are 
the names of men of eminence in our histories. 
What these books give are not contradictions, but 
unauthorized additions. The principal facts are 
supposed, — the principal agents the same ; which 



* Jones, vol- i. p. 243. 

f Laidncr's Creel, vol. ii. p. 557. 



OF CHRISTIANltY. 137 

shew that these points were too much fixed to be 
altered or disputed. 

If there be any hook of this description, whicb 
appears to have imposed upon some considerable 
number of learned Christians, it is the Svbillin© 
Oracles ; but, when we reflect upon the circum- 
stances which facilitated that imposture, we shall 
cease to wonder either at the attempt, or its suc- 
cess. It was at that time universally understood, 
that such a prophetic writing existed. Its con- 
tents were kept secret. The situation afforded to 
some one a hint, as well as an opportunity, to give 
out a writing under this name, favourable to the 
aheady established persuasion of Christians ; and 
which writing, by the aid and recommendation of 
these circumstances, would, in some degree, it is 
probable, be received. Of the ancient forgery wei 
know but little ; what is now produced could not^ 
in my opinion, have imposed upon any one. It is 
nothing else than the Gospel - history woven into 
verse. Perhaps, was at first rather a fiction than a 
forgery ; an exercise of ingenuity, moi'e than an at=^ 
tempt to deceive. 



188 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER X. 

The reader will now be pleased to recollect that 
the two points which form the subject of our pre- 
sent discussion, are, first, That the Founder of 
Christianity, his associates, and immediate fol- 
lowers, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and 
sufferings ; secondly, That they did so, in attesta- 
tion of the miraculous history recorded in our 
Scriptures, and solely in consequence of their be- 
lief of the truth of that history. 

The argument by which these two propositions 
have been maintained by us, stands thus : — 

No historical fact, 1 apprehend, is more certain 
than that the original propagators of Christianity 
voluntarily subjected themselves to lives of fatigue, 
danger, and sutfering, in the prosecution of their 
undertaking. The nature of the undertaking; the 
character of the persons employed in it ; the oppo- 
sition of their tenets to the fixed opinions and ex- 
pectations of the country in which they first ad- 
vanced them ; their undissembied condemnation of 
the religion of all other countries ; their total want 
of power, authority, or force, render it in the 
highest degree probable that this must have been 
the case. The probability is increased, by what we 
know^ of the fate of the Founder of the institution, 
who was put to death for his attempt ; and by 
what we also know^ of the cruel treatment of the 
converts to the institution, within thirty years after 
its commencement ; both which points are attested 
by Heathen writers ; and, being once admitted, 
leave it very incredible that the primitive emissa- 
ries of the religion, who exercised their ministry 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 S9 

first among the people who had destroyed their 
Master, and afterwards amongst those who perse- 
cuted their converts, should themselves escape vv^th 
impunity, or pursue their purpose in ease and 
safety. This probability, thus sustained by foreign 
testimony, is advanced, I think, to historical cer- 
tainty, by the evidence of our own books ; by the 
accounts of a writer who was the companion of the 
persons whose sufferings he relates ; by the letters 
of the persons themselves ; by predictions of perse- 
cutions ascribed to the Founder of the religion, 
which predicdons would not have been inserted in 
his history, much less have been studiously dwelt 
upon, if they had not accorded with the event, and 
which, even if falsely ascribed to him, could only 
have been so ascribed, because the event suggested 
them; — lastly, By incessant exhortations to for- 
titude and patience, and by an earnestness, repeti- 
tion, and urgency upon the subject, which were 
unlikely to have appeared, if there had not been 
at the time some extraordinary call for the exercise 
of these virtues. 

It is made out also, I think, with sufficient evi- 
dence. That both the teachers and converts of the 
religion, in consequence of their new profession, 
took up a new course of life and behaviour. 

The next great question is. What did they this 
FOR? That it was /or a miraculous story of some 
kind or other, is, to my apprehension, extrenjeiy 
manifest; because, as to the fundamental article, 
the designation of the person, viz. That this par- 
ticular person, Jesus of Nazareth, ought to be re- 
ceived as the Messiah, or as a Messenger from 
God, they neither had, nor could have, any thing 
but miracles to stand upon: that the exertions and 
sufferings of the apostles were /or the story which 
we have now, is proved by the consideration that 
this story is transmitted to us b} two of their own 



wo 



THE EVIDENCES 



number, and by two others personally connected 
with them : that the particularity of the narrative 
proves, That the writers claimed to possess circum- 
stantial information that, from their situation, tiiey 
had full opportunity of acquiring such information ; 
that they certainly, at least, knevv- what their col- 
leagues, their companions, their masters taught ; 
that each of these books contains enough to prove 
the truth of the religion ; that if any one of them, 
therefore, be genuine, it is sufficient ; that the ge- 
nuineness, however, of ail of them is made out, as 
well by the general arguments which evince the ge- 
nuineness of the undisputed remains of antiquity, 
as also by peculiar amd specific proois, tnz. By ci- 
tations from them in writings belonging to a period 
immediately contiguous to thut in which they were 
published ; by the distinguished regard paid by 
early Christians to the authority of tliese books 
(which regard was manifested by their collecting of 
them into a volume, appropriating to that volume 
titles of peculiar respect, translating them into va- 
rious languages, dii^estincf them into harmonies, 
writing commentaries upon them, and, still more 
conspicuously, by the reading of them in their public 
assemblies in all parts of the world) ; by an univer- 
sal agreement with respect to these books, whilst 
doubts wei'e entertained concerning some others ; 
by contending sects appealing to them ; by the early 
adversaries of the religion not disputing their ge- 
nuineness, but, on the contrary, treating them as 
the depositaries of the history upon which the reli- 
gion was founded ; by many formal catalogues of 
these, as of certain and authoritative writings, pub- 
lished in different and distant parts of tne Christian 
world ; lastly. By the absence or defect of the 
jibove-cited topics of evidence, when applied to 
^liv other histories of the same subject. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



m 



These are strong arguments to prove, that the 
books actually proceeded from the authors whose 
names they bear (and have always borne, for there 
is not a particle of evidence to shew that they ever 
went under any other) ; but the strict genuineness 
of the books is perhaps more than is necessary to 
the support of our proposition ; — for, even sup- 
posing that, by reason of the silence of antiquity,' 
or the loss of records, we know not w ho were the 
writers of the four Gospels; yet the fact, that they 
were received as authentic accounts of the trans- 
action upon which the religion rested, and were re- 
ceived as such by Christians, at or near the age of 
the apostles, by those whom the apostles had taught^ 
and by societies whom the apostles had founded, — 
this fact, I say, connected with the consideration 
that they are corroborative of each others testi- 
mony, and that they are farther corroborated by 
another contemporary history, taking up the story 
where they had left it, and, in a narrative built 
upon that story, accounting for the rise and pro- 
duction of changes in tlie world, the effects of 
which subsist at this day; connected, moreover, 
with the confirmation which they receive, from let- 
ters written by the apostles themselves, which both 
assume the same general story, and, as often as oc- 
casions lead them to do so, allude to particular 
parts of it; and connected also wiih the reflection, 
that if the apostles delivered any different story, it 
is lost (the present and no pther being referred to 
by a series of Christian writers, down from iheir 
age to our own ; being likewise recognized in a va- 
riety of institutions which prevailed early and uni- 
versally amongst the disciples of the religioi)) ; and 
that so great a change, as the oblivion of one 
story and the substitution of another, under such 
circumstances, could not have taken place, — this 



192 



THE EVIDENCES 



evidence would be deemed, I apprehend, sufficient 
to prove, concerning these books, that, whoever 
were the authors of (hem, they exhibit the story 
which the apostles told, and for which, conse- 
quently, they acted, and they suffered. 

If it be so, the religion must be true. These 
men could not be deceivers. By only not bearing 
testimony, they might have avoided all their suffer- 
ings, and have lived quiedy. Would men in such 
circumstances pretend to have seen what they never 
saw ; assert facts which they had no knowledge of; 
go about lying, to teach virtue ; and, though not 
only convinced of Christ's being an impostor, but 
having seen the success of his imposture in his cru- 
cifixion, persist in carrying it on ; and so persist, as 
to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with a 
full knowledge of the consequence; enmity and ha- 
tred, danger and death ? 



OF CHRISTIANITY, IQS 



OF THE 

DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE 

OF 

CHRISTIANITY. 



PROPOSITION II, 

CHAPTER I. 

Our First Proposition was, That there is satiS' 
J act or y Evidence that many, pretending to be 
original [Fitnesses of the Christian Miracles, 
passed their Lives in Labours, Dangers, and 
Sujf'erings, voluntarily undertaken and under- 
gone in Attestation of the Accounts which they 
delivered, and solely in consequence of their Be- 
lief of the Truth of those Accounts ; and that 
they also submitted, from the same Motives, to 
nexv Rules of Conduct^ 

Our Second Proposition, and which now remains 
to he treated of, is, " That there is not satisfac- 
tory Evidence that Persojis, pretending to be 
original Witnesses of any other similar Mi- 
racles, have acted in the same manner, in Attes- 
tation of the Accounts which they delivered, and 
solely in consequence of their Belief of the Trutft^ 
of those Account sT 

I ENTER upon this part of my argument, by 
declaring how far my belief in miraculous ac- 
counts goes. If the reformers, in the time of 

0 



194 



tUE EVIDENCES 



Wickliffe, or of Luther ; or those of England, in 
the time of Henry the Eighth, or of Queen Mar3^; 
or the founders of our religious sects since, such as 
were Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley in our tiuics, 
had undergone the life of toil and exertion, of 
dangers and sufferings, which we know that njany 
of them did undergoj^or a miraculous story ; that is 
to say, if they had founded their public ministry 
upon the allegation of miracles wrought within their' 
own knowledge, and upon narratives which could 
not be resolved into delusion or mistake ; and if it 
had appeared that their conduct really had its 
origin in these accounts, I should have believed 
them. 

Or, to borrow an instance which will be fami- 
liar to every one of my readers, if the late Mr. 
Howard had undertaken his labours and journeys 
in attestation and in consequence of a clear and 
sensible miracle, I should have believed him also. 
Or, to represent the same thing under a third sup- 
position ; — if Socrates had professed to perform 
public miracles at Athens ; if the friends of So- 
crates, Psedo, Cebes, Crito, and Simmias, together 
with Plato, and many of his followers, relying upon 
the attestation which these miracles afforded to his 
pretensions, had, at the hazard of their lives, and the 
certain ex pence of their ease and tranquillity, gone 
about Greece, after his death, to publish and pro- 
pagate his doctrines ; and if these things had come 
to our knowledge, in the same way as that in which 
the Life of Socrates is now transmitted to us, through 
the hands of his companions and disciples, that is, 
by writings received without doubt as theirs, from 
the age in whicii they were published to the pre- 
. sent, I should have believed this likewise ; and my 
belief would, in each case, be much strengthened, 
if the subject of the niission were of importance to 
the conduct and happinesij of - human life ; if it 



OF CHRISTIANITY. igS 

testified any thing vvhich it behoved mankind to 
know from such authority ; if the nature of what it 
deliv&red required the sort of proof which it ai-^ 
leged ; if the occasion was adequate to the interpo- 
sition, the end worthy of the means. In the last 
Case, my faith would be mucli confirined, if the 
effects of the transaction i-emaiNed ; more espe- 
cially, if a change had been wrought at the time^ 
in [he 0[)inion and conduct of such numbers, as lo 
lay the foundation of an instituiion, and of a svstem 
of doctrines, which had since overs[)read riie 
greatest part of the civilized world, — I should have 
believed, I say, the testunony in the>e cases ; vet 
none of diem do more tliau come up to the apostolic 
history. 

If any one choose to call assent to this evidence 
Credulity, it is at least incunjbent upon him to pro- 
duce examples, in which the same evidence hath 
turned out to be fallacious ; and this contains the 
precise question which we are now to agitate. 

In stating the comparison between our evidence 
and what our adversaries may bring into competi- 
tion with ours, we will divide the distinctions which 
we wish to propose into two kinds; — those which 
relate to the proof, and those which relate to tlie 
miracles. Under the former head we may lay out 
of the case, 

I. Such accounts of supernatural events as are 
found only in histories by some ages posterior to 
the transaction, and of which it is evident that the 
historian could know^ little more than his readers. 
Ours is contemporary history. This difference 
alone removes out of our way the miraculous his- 
tory of Pythagoras, who lived live hundred years 
before the Christian sera, written by Porphyry and 
Jambiicus, who lived three hundred years after 

OS 



196 



THE EVICENCES 



that sera ; tlie prodigies of Livy s history ; the 
fal)les of the heroic ages ; the whole of the Greek 
and Roman, as well as of the Gothic mythology ; 
a great part of the legendary history of Popish 
saints, the very best attested of which is extracted 
from the certificates that are exhibited during the 
process of their canonization : a ceremony which 
seldom takes place till a century after their death. 
It applies also with considerable force to the mi- 
racles of ApoUonius Tyaneus, which are contained 
in a solitary history of his life, published by Philos- 
tratus, above a hundred years after his death ; and 
in which, whether Philostratus had any prior ac- 
count to guide him, depends upon his single unsup-^ 
ported assertion. Also to some of the miracles of 
the third century, especially to one extraordinary 
instance, the account of Gregory, bishop of Neoce- 
sarea, called Thaumaturgus, delivered in the writ- 
ings of G regory of Nyssen, who lived one hundred 
and thirty years after the subject of i)is panegyric. 

The value of this circumstance is shewn to have 
been accurately exemplified in the History of Ig- 
natius Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesuits*. 
His Life, written by a companion of his, and by one 
of the order, was published about fifteen years after 
his death. In w hich Life, the author, so far from as- 
cribing any miracles to Ignatius, industriously stales 
the reasons why he was not invested with any such 
power. The Life was republished fifteen years 
afterwards, with ihe addition of many circumstances, 
w hich w ere the fruit, the author says, of further in- 
quiry, and of diligent examination ; but still with a 
total silence about miracles. When Ignatius had 
been dead nearly sixty years, the Jesuits, conceiving 



* Douglas's Criterion of Mii acles, p. 74. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



197 



a wish to have the founder of their order placed in 
the Roman calendar, besjan, as it should seem, for 
the first time, to attribute to him a catalogue of mi- 
racles, which could not then be distinctly disproved ; 
and which there was, in those who governed the 
church, a strong disposition to admit upon the 
slenderest proofs. 

II. We may lay out of the case accounts pub* 
Jished in one country, of what passed in a distant 
country, without any proof that such accounts were 
known or received at home. In the case of Chris- 
tianity, Judea, which was the scene of the transac- 
tion, was the centre of the mission. Tiie story was 
published in the place in which it was acted. The 
church of Christ was first planted at Jerusalem it- 
self. With that church others corresponded. Fiom 
thence the primitive teachers of the institution \^ent 
forth ; thither they assembled. The church of Je- 
rusalem, and the several churches of Judea, sub- 
sisted from the beginning, and for many ages*; re- 
ceived also the same books and the same accounts 
as other churches did. 

This distinction disposes, amongst others, of the 
above-mentioned miracles of Apollonius Tyaneus, 
most of which are related to have been pertormed 
in India, no evidence remaining that either the mi- 
racles ascribed to him, or the history of those mi- 
racles, were ever heard of m India. 'J hose of 
Francis Xavier, the Indian missionary, with many 
others of the Romish breviary, are liable to li)e 
san)e objection, vi^- that the accounts of them were 



* The succession of many eminent bishops of Jerusalem in tiie 
three lirst centuries, is distinctly preserved ; as Alexander, A- D. 
•312, who succeeded Narcissus, tken IIG years old- 



19S 



THE EVIDENCES 



published at avast distance from the supposed scene 
of tlie wonder ^. 

TIT. We lay out of the case trans'wnt rumours. 
Upon the first publication of an extraordinary ac- 
count, or even of an article of ordinary intelligence, 
no one who is not personally acquainted with the 
transaction, can know whether it be true or false, 
because any man may publish any stor}^ It is in 
the future confirmation or contradiction of the ac- 
count ; in its permanency, or its disappearance ; its 
dying away into silence, or its increasing notoriety ; 
its being followed up by subsequent accounts, and 
being repeated in different and independent ac- 
counts, that solid truth is distinguished from fu^ 
eitive lies. This distinction is altogether on the 
side of Christianity. The story did not drop. On 
the contrary, it was succeeded by a train of actions 
and events dependent upon it. The accounts which 
we have ni our hands were composed after the first 
reports niust have subsided. They were followed 
by a train of writings upon the subject. The his- 
torical test i monies of the transaction were many 
and various, and connected with letters, discourses, 
controversies, and apologies, sijcceasively produced 
by the same tr;jnsaction. 

ly. We may lay out of the case what I call 
naked history. It has been said, that if the pro- 
digies of the Jewish history has been found only in 
fragments of Manetho, or Bcrosus, we should have 
jjaid no regard to them : and I am willing to admit 
this. If we knew noihino; of the fact but from the 
fragment ; if we possessed no proof that these ac- 



* Pouglas's Criterion of Miracles, p. 34. 



OF CPIRISTIANITY. 



199 



counts had been credited and acted upon from 
times, probably, as ancient as the accounts them- 
selves; if we had no visible effects connected with 
the history, no subsequent or collateral testimony 
to confirm it, — under these circumstances, I think 
that it would be undeserving of credit ; but this 
certainly is not our case. In appreciating the evi- 
dence of Christianity, the books are to be combined 
with the in'^titution ; with the prevalency of the re- 
ligion at this day ; with the time and place of its 
origin, which are acknowledged points ; with the 
circumstances of its rise and progress, as collected 
from external history ; with the fact of our present 
books being received by the votaries of the institu- 
tion from the beginning ; w ith that of other books 
cominii after these, filled with accounts of effects 
and consequences resulting from the transaction, 
or referring to the transaction, or built upon it ; 
lasdy, with the consideration of the number and 
variety of the books themselves, the different 
writers from which they proceed, the different views 
with which they were written, so disagreeing as to 
repel the suspicion of confederacy ; so agreeing as 
to shew that they were founded in a common ori- 
ginal, 2. €, in a story substantially the same. Whe- 
ther this proof be satisfactory or not, it is properly 
a cumulation of evidence ; by no means a naked or 
solitary record. 

V. A mark of historical truth, although only in 
a certain way, and to a certain degree, is particu- 
ianty in names, dates, places, circumstances, and 
in the order of events preceding or following the 
transaction ; of which kind, for mstance, is the par- 
ticularity in the description of Saint Paul's voyage 
and shipwreck, in the 27th chapter of the Acts, 
which no man, I think, can read without being con- 
vinced that the wi iter was there ; and also in the 



THE EVIDENCES 



account of the cure and examination of the blind 
man, in the ninth chapter of Saint John's Gospel, 
which bears every mark of personal knowledge on 
the part of the historian^. I do not deny that fic- 
tion has often the particularity of truth; bui then 
it is of studied and elaborate fiction, or of a formal 
attempt to deceive, tliat we observe this. Since, 
however, experience proves that particularity is not 
confined to truth, I have stated that it is a proof of 
truth only to a certain extent, i. e. it reduces the 
quesiion to this, Whether we can depend or not 
upon the probity of the relater? which is a consi- 
derable advance in our present argument; for an ex- 
press attempt to deceive, in vvhich ca e alone parti- 
cularity can appear without truth, is charged upon 
the evangelists by few. If the historian acknow- 
ledge himself to have received his intelligence from 
others, the particularity of the narrative shews, 
prima Jacie^ tlje accuracy of his inquiries, and the 
fulness of his information. This remark belongs to 
Saint Luke\s history. Of the particularity which wc 
allege, many examples may be found in all the 
Gospels ; and it is very ditiiculi to conceive that 
such numerous peculiarities as are ahnost every- 
where to be met with in the Scriptuies should be 
raised out of nothing, or be spun out of the imagi- 
nation without any fact to go upon '\, 



* Both tliese chapters ought to be read for the sake of this very 
ebservatioo. 

T " There is alwa} s some truth where there are considerable par- 
ticuiarities related; and thcj always seein to bear some proportion 
to one another. Thus, there is a great want ol" the particulars of 
lime, place, and persons, in jManetho's account of the Egyptian Dy- 
nasties, Ktesias's of the Assyrian kings, and those which the technical 
chrouoiouers have given of the ancient kingdoms of Greece ; and 
agrt-eabiy thereto, these accounts have much fiction and falsehood, 
with some truth ; whereas Thucydides' Bistory of the Fcioponnesiau 
War, and Caesar s of the War ui Gaul, in both w hicii tiie particu- 
lars of time, place, and persons are mentioned, are universally es- 
teemed true, to a great degree of exactness.'^ Hartly^ vol. ii. p. 108, 



OF CHlilSTIANlTr. 



201 



It is to be remarked, however, that this particu- 
larity is only to be looked for in direct history. It 
is not natural in references or allusions which yet, 
in other respects, often afford, as far as they go, the 
most unsuspicious evidence. 

VL We lay out of the case such stories of super- 
natural events as require, on the part of the hearer, 
nothing more than an otiose assent: stories upon 
which nothing depends, in which no interest is in- 
volved, nothing is to be done or ciian2;ed in conse- 
quence of believing them. Such stories are credit- 
ed, if the careless assent that is given to them de- 
serve that name more by the indolence of the 
hearer than by his judgment; or, tiiough not much 
credited, are passed from one to another without 
inquiry or resistance. To this case, and to this case 
alone, belongs what is called the love of the mar- 
vellous. 1 have never known it carry men further. 
Men do not suffer persecution from the love of the 
marvellous. Of the indifferent nature we are speak- 
ing of, are most vulgar errors and popular super- 
stitions ; most, for instance, of the current reports of 
apparitions. Nothing depends upon their being- 
true or false. But not, surely, of this kind were 
the alleged miracles of Christ and his apostles. — 
They decided, if true, the most important question 
upon which the human miiid can fix its anxiety. 
They claimed to regulate the opinions of mankiijd 
upon subjects in which they are not only deeply 
concerned, but usually rehactory and obstinate. 
I\Ien could not be utterly careless in such a case as 
this. If a Jew took up the story, he found his dar- 
ling partiality to his own nation and law wounded: 
if a Gentile, he found his idolatry and polytheism 
reprobated and condemned. Whoever entertained 
the account, whether Jew or Gentjle, could not 



202 



THE EVIDENCES 



avoid the following reflection : — " If these things be 
true, I must give up the opinions and principles in 
M hich I have been brought up, the religion in which 
my fathers lived aiid died." It is not conceivable 
that a man should do this upon any idle report or 
frivolous account, or, indeed, without being fully 
satisfied and convinced of the truth and credibility 
of the narrative to which he trusted. But it did 
not stop at opinions. They who believed Christiani- 
ty, acted upon it. IMany made it the express busi- 
ness of their lives to publish the intelligence. It 
was required of those who admitted that intelli- 
gence, to change forthwith their conduct and their 
principles, to take up a different course of life, to 
part with their habits and gratifications, and begin 
a new set of rules and system of behaviour. The 
apostles, at least were interested not to sacrifice 
their ease, their fortunes, and their lives, for an idle' 
tale; multitudes beside them were induced by the 
same tale, to encounter opposition, danger, and 
sufferings. 

If it be said that the mere promise of a future 
state would do all this, — I answer, That the mere 
promise of a future state, without any evidence to 
iiive credit or assiu'ance to it, would do nothing. 
A few wandering fishermen, talking of a resurrec- 
tion of the dead, could produce no effect. If it be 
further said, that men easily believe what they anx- 
iously desire, I again answer, That, in my opinion, 
the very contraiy of this is nearest to the trutli. 
Anxiety of desire, earnestness of expectation, the 
vastness of an event, rather cause men to disbe- 
lieve, to doubt, to dread a fallacy, to distrust, and 
to examine. Vvlien our Lord's resurrection was 
iirsi reported to the apostles, they did not believe, 
we are told, for joy. This was natural, and is 
agreeable to experience. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



£05 



VII. We have laid out of the case those ac- 
counts which require no more than a simple as- 
sent ; and we now also lay out of the case those 
whicli come nearly in affirmance of opinions already 
formed. Tnis last circumstance is of the utmost 
importance to notice well. It has long been ob- 
served, that Popish miracles happen in Popish 
countries ; that they make no converts : which 
proves that stories are accepted, when they fall in, 
with principles already fixed, with the public senti- 
ments, or with the sentiments of a party already 
engaged on the side the miracle supports, which 
would not be attempted to be produced in the face 
of enemies, in opposition to reigning tenets or fa- 
vourite prejudices, or when, if they be believed, the 
belief must draw men away from their preconceived 
and habitual opinions, from tlieir modes of life and 
rules of action. In the former case, men may not 
only receive a miraculous account, but may boih 
act and suffer on the side and in tiie cause which 
the miracle supports, yet not act or suffer for the 
miracle, but in pursuance of a prior persuasion. 
The miracle, like any other argument whicff only 
confirms what was before believed, is admitted with 
little examination. In the moral as in tlie natural 
world, it is change which requires a cause. JMen 
are easily fortilied in their old opinions; driven from 
them with great difficulty. Now, how does this 
ap[)ly to the Christian history? The niiracles 
there re£*orded w^ere wrought in the midst of ene- 
inies, under a government, a priesthood, and a 
magistracy, decidedly and vehemently adverse to 
them, and to the pretensions whicli they support- 
ed. They were Protestant un'racles in a Popish 
country ; they were Popish miracles in the midst 
of Protestants, They prOikiced a change; they 
establisiied a society upon tiie spot, adiiering to 



^04? THE EVIDENCES 

the belief of them ; they made converts ; and those 
who were converted gave up to the testimony their 
most fixed opinions and most favourite prejudices. 
They wlio acted and suffered in the cause, acted 
and suffered /or the miracles; for there was no an- 
terior persuasion to induce them, no prior re- 
verence, prejudice, or partiahty, to take hold of. 
Jesus had not one follower when he set up his 
claim. His miracles gave birth to his sect. No 
part of this description belongs to the ordinary 
evidence of Heathen or Popish miracles. Even 
most of the miracles alleged to have been performed 
by C^hristians, in the second and third century of 
its a^ra, want this contirmation. It constitutes in- 
deed a line of partition between the origin and the 
progress of Christianity. Frauds and fallacies 
might mix themselves with the progress, uhich 
could not possibly take place in the commencement 
of the religicn, — at least, according to any laws of 
human conduct that we are acquainted vvith. What 
should suggest to the first propagators of Christia- 
nity, especially to fishermen, tax-gatherers, and 
hu.sbandmen, such a thought as that of changing 
the reiiiiion of tlie world? — what could bear them 
through the difiiculties in which the attempt engaged 
them ? — what could procure any degree of success to 
the attempt? are questions which apply with great 
force to the setting out of the institution ; with less 
to every future stage of it. 

To hear some men talk, one would suppose the 
setting up of religion by miracles to be a thing of 
every day's experience ; whereas the whole cur- 
rent ot history is against it. Hath any founder of 
a new sect amongst Christians pretended to mi- 
raculous powers, and succeeded by his preten- 
sions? *' Were these powers claimed or exercised 
by the founders of the sects of the Waicjense^ 



O^' CHRISTIANITr. 



205 



and Albigenses ? Did WicklifFe in England pre- 
tend to it? Did Huss or Jerome in Bohemia? 
Did Luther in Germany, Zuinglius in Switzerland, 
Calvin in France, or any of the reformers advance 
this plea^r" The French prophets, in the begin- 
ning of the present century -f, ventured to aileo;e 
miraculous evidence, and immediately ruined their 
cause by their temerity. Concerning the religion 
of ancient Rome, of Turkey, of Siam, of China, a 
aingle miracle cannot be named that was ever offer- 
ed as a test of any of those religions before their 
establishment 

We may add to what has been observed of the 
distinction which we are considering, That where 
miracles are alleged merely in affirmance of a prior 
opinion, they who believe the doctrine may some- 
times propagate a belief of the miracles which they 
do not themselves entertain. This is the case of 
what are called pious jrauds ; but it is a case, I 
apprehend, which takes place solely in support of 
a persuasion already established. At least it does 
not hold of the apostolical history. If the aposdes 
did not believe the miracles, they did not believe 
the religion ; and, without this belief, wheie was 
the piety y what place was there for any thing which 
could bear the name or colour of piety, in publish- 
ing and attesting miracles in its behalf? If it be 
said, that many promote the belief of the revela- 
tion, and of any accounts which favour that belief, 
because they think them, whether well or ill found- 
ed, of public and political utility, — I answer, That if 
a character exist which can with less justice than 
another be ascribed to the founders of the Christian 
religion, it is that of politicians, or of men capable 
of entertaining political views. The trutfi is, that 



* Campbell on MiraclGs, p. 120, ed. 177G. 

t The Eis^hteentfi, X Adams on jMir. p. 75, 



20(5 



THE EVIt>E^XES 



there is no assignable character which will account 
for the conviuct of the apostles, supposing tlieir 
stor}' to be false. If bad men, what could have in- 
duced them to take such pains to promote virtue? 
If good men, they would not have gone about the 
country with a string of lies in their mouths. 

In appreciating the credit of any miraculous 
storv, these are distinctions v-hich relate to the evi- 
dence. There are other distinctions of great mo- 
ment in the question, which relate to the miracles 
themselves. Of which latter kind the following 
ought carefully to be letained : — 

I. It is not necessary to admit as a miracle what 
can be resolved into a false pejxeption. Of this 
nature was the demon of Socrates ; the visions of 
Saint Anthony, and of many others ; the vision 
which Lord Herbert of Cherbury describes himself 
to have seen; Colonel Gardiner's vision, as related 
in his Life, written by Dr. Doddridge. All these 
may be accounted for by a momentary insanity ; for, 
the characteristic symptom of human madness is 
the rising up in the mind of images not distinguish- 
able by the patient from impressions upon the 
senses*. The cases, however, in which the pos- 
sibility of this delusion exists, are divided from the 
cases in which it does not exist, by many, and those 
not obscure marks. They are, for the most part, 
cases of visions or voices. The object is hardly 
ever touched. The vision submits not to be 
handled. One sense does not confirm another. 
They are likewise almost always cases of solitary 
witness. It is in the highest degree improbable, 
and I know not indeed whether it hath ever been 



* Patty on Lunacy, 



OF CHRISTiANlTr. 207 

the fact, that the same derani^ements of the mental 
organs should seize different persons at the same 
time ; a derangenicnt, I mean, so much the same, 
as to represent to their imagination the same ob- 
jects. Lastly, these are always cases of momentary 
miracles ; by which term I mean to denote miracles, 
of which the whole existence is of short duration, 
in contradistinction to miracles which are attended 
with permanent effects. The appearance of a 
spectre, the hearing of a supernatural sound, is a 
momentary miracle. The sensible proof is gone 
when the apparition or sound is over. But if a 
person born blind be restored to sight, a notorious 
cripple to the use of his limbs, or a dead man to 
life, here is a permanent effect produced by super- 
natural means. The change indeed was instanta- 
neous, but the proof continues. The subject of 
the miracle remains. The man cured or restored 
is there ; his former condition was known, and his 
present condition may be examined. This can by 
no possibility be resolved into false perception : and 
of this kind are by far the greater part of the mira- 
cles recorded in the New Testament. When Laza- 
rus was raised from the dead, he did not merely 
move, and speak, and die again ; or come out of 
the grave, and vanish away. He returned to his 
home and his family, and there continued ; for we 
find him, some time afterwards, in the same town 
sitting at table with Jesus and his sisters ; visited 
by great multitudes of the Jews, as a subject of 
curiosity ; giving, by his presence, so much uneasi- 
ness to the Jewish rulers, as to beget in them a de- 
sign of destroying him*'. No delusion can account 
for this. The French prophets in England, some 
time since, gave out that one of their teachers 



^ .lobrt xii. 1, 2, 9, 10, 



20^ 



THK EVIDENCES 



would come to life again ; but their enthusiasm 
never made them believe that the}^ actually saw him 
alive. The blind man, whose restoration to si^ht 
at Jerusalem is recorded in the ninth chapter of 
Saint John s Gospel, did not quit the place or con- 
ceal himself from inquiry. On the contrary, he 
was forthcoming to answer the call, to satisfy the 
scrutiny, and to sustain the brow- beating of 
Christ's angry and powerful enemies. When the 
cripple at the sate of the temple was suddenly 
cured by Peter he did not immediately relapse 
into his former lameness, or disappear out of the 
citv ; but boldly and honestly produced himself 
along with the apostles, when they were brought 
the next day before the Jewish council f . Here, 
thougfi the miracle was sudden, the proof was 
permanent. The lameness had been notorious, 
the cure continued. This, therefore, could not 
be the effect of any momentary delirium, either 
in the sulyect or in the witness of the transac- 
tion. It is the same with the greatest number of 
Scripture miracles. There are other cases of 
2i77Hred nature, in which, although the principal 
miracle be momentary, some circumstance com- 
bined with it is permanent. Of this kind is the 
history of St. Paufs conversion J. The sudden light 
and sound, the vision and the voice, upon the 
road to Damascus, were momentary ; but Paufs 
blindness for three days in consequence of what 
had happened ; the communication made to An- 
anias in another place, and by a vision independ- 
ent of the former ; Ananias finding out Paul, in 
consequence of intelligence so received, and find- 
ing him in the condition described ; and Paul's 
recovery of his sight upon Ananias laying his 



* Acts iii, 2. 



t Chap. iv. 24. 



+ Chap.ix, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 20^ 

hands upon him, are circumstances which take 
the transaction, and the principal miracle as in- 
cluded in it, entirely out of the case of momentary 
miracles, or of such as may be accounted for by 
false perceptions. Exactly the same thing may be 
observed of Peter's vision, preparatory to the call 
of Cornelius, and of its connection with what was 
imparted in a distant place to Cornelius himself, 
and with the message dispatched by Cornelius to 
Peter. The vision might be a dream ; the message 
could not. Either communication taken sepa- 
rately might be a delusion ; the concurrence of the 
two was impossible to happen without a superna- 
tural cause. 

Beside the risk of delusion, which attaches upon 
momentary miracles, there is also much more room 
for imposture. The account cannot be examined 
at the moment ; and, when that is also a moment of 
hurry and confusion, it may not be difficult for men 
of influence to gain credit to any story which they 
may wish to have believed. This is precisely the 
case of one of the best attested of the miracles of 
Old Rome, the appearance of Castor and Pollux 
in the battle fought by Posthumius with the Latins 
at the Lake Regillus. There is no doubt but that 
Posthumius, after the battle, spread the report of 
such an appearance. No person could deny it 
whilst it was said to last. No person, perhaps, 
had any inclination to dispute it afterwards; or, 
if they had, could say with positiveness what was^ 
or what was not seen, by some or other of the 
army in the dismay, and amidst the tumult of a 
battle. 

In assigning false perceptions as the origin to 
which some miraculous accounts may be referred, 
I have not mentioned claims to inspiration, illumi- 
nations, secret notices or directions, internal sensa^ 
tions, or consciousness of being acted upon by spi^ 

p 



/ 



210 



THE EVIDENCES 



ritual influences, good or bad, because these, ap^ 
pealing to no external proof, however convincing 
they may be to the persons themselves, form no 
part of what can be accounted miraculous evidence. 
Their own credibility stands upon their alliance 
with other miracles. The discussion, therefore, of 
all such pretensions may be omitted. 

11. It is not necessary to bring into the compa- 
rison what may be called tentative miracles ; that is, 
where, out of a great number of trials, some succeed; 
and in the accounts of which, although the narra- 
tive of the successful cases be alone preserved, and 
that of the unsuccessful cases sunk, yet enough is 
stated to show that the cases produced are only a 
few out of many in which the same means have 
been employed. This observation bears with con- 
siderable force upon the ancient oracles and au- 
guries, in v^hich a single coincidence of the event 
with the prediction is talked of and magnified, 
whilst failures are forgotten, or suppressed, or ac- 
counted for. It is also applicable to the cures 
w'rought bv relics, and at die tombs of saints. The 
boasted efficacy of the kings touch, upon which 
Mr. Hume lays some stress, falls under the same' 
description. Nothing is alleged concerning it 
which is not alleged of various nostrums; namely, 
out of many thousands who have used them, certi- 
fied proofs of a few w ho hav e recovered after them. 
No solution of this sort is applicable to the mi- 
racles of the Gospel. There is nothing in the nar- 
rative which can induce, or even allow, us to be- 
lieve that Chiist attempted cures in many instances, 
and succeeded m a few ; or that he ever made the 
attempt in vain. He did not profess to heal every- 
where ail that were sick ; on the contrary, he told 
the Jews, evidently meaning to represent his own 
case, that although many widows were in Israel 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



211 



in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up 
three years and six months ; when great famine 
was throughout all the land, yet unto none of 
them was Ehas sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of 
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow ;" — and that 

many lepers were in Israel in the tiine of Eliseus 
the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving 
Naaman the Syrian By which examples he 
gave them to understand, that it was not the nature 
of a divine interposition, or necessary to its pur- 
pose, to be general; still less, to answer every 
challenge that might be made, which would teach 
men to put their faith upon these experiments. — 
Christ never pronounced the word, but the effect 
followed f . It was not a thousand sick that re- 
ceived his benediction, and a few that were bene- 
fited ; a single paralytic is let down in his bed at 
Jesuss feet, in the midst of a surrounding multi- 
tude ; Jesus bid him walk, and he did so A 
man with a withered hand is in the synagogue ; 
Jesus bid him stretch forth his hand, in the pre- 
sence of the whole assembly, and it was " restored 
whole like the other There was nothing tenta- 
tive in these cures ; nothing that can be explained 
by the power of accident. 

We may observe also, that many of the cures 
which Christ wrought, — such as that of a person 



* Luke iv. 25. 

t One, and only one instance may be produced, in which the dis^ 
ciplcs of Christ do seem to have attempted a cure, aj!d not to l-ave 
been able to perform it.. The story is very ingenuously related by 
three of the evangelists*. The pfitient was afterwards healed by 
Christ himself; and the wliole transaction seems to have been iii- 
tended, as it was w^ell suited, to display the superiority of Christ 
above all who performed miracles in his name : — a distinction 
which, during his presence in the world, it might be necessary to in- 
culcate by some such proof as this. 

X Mark ii. 3- § Matth. xii. 10, 

* Mark xi. 14. Matth. xvi. 20. 

P 2 



THE EVIDENCES 



blind from his birth ; also many miracles beside 
cures, — as raising the dead, walking upon the sea, 
feeding a great multitude with a few loaves and 
fishes, are of a nature which does not in anywise 
admit of the supposition of a fortunate experiment. 

in. We may dismiss from the question all ac- 
counts in which, allowing the phenomenon to be 
real, the fact to be true, it still remains doubtful 
whether a miracle was w^'ought. This is the caser^ 
with the ancient history of what is called the thun- 
dering legion ; of the extraordinary circumstances 
which obstructed the rebuilding of the temple at 
Jerusalem by Julian ; the circling of the flames and 
fragrant smell at the martyrdom of Polycarp ; the 
sudden shower that extinguished the fire into which 
the Scriptures were thrown in the Dioclesian perse- 
cution ; Constantine's dream, his inscribing in con^ 
sequence of it the cross upon his standard and the 
shields of his soldiers ; his victoi-y, and the escape 
of the standard-bearer ; perhaps also the imagined 
appearance of the cross in the heavens, though this 
last circumstance is very deficient in historical evi- 
dence. It is also the case with the modern annual 
exhibition of the liquefaction of the blood of St. 
Januarius at Naples. It is a doubt, likewise, 
which ought to be excluded by very special circum- 
stances from those narratives which relate to the 
supernatural cure of hypochondriacal and nervous 
complaints, and of all diseases which are much af- 
fected by the imagination. The miracles of the 
second and third century are, usually healing the 
sick and casting out evil spirits : miracles in which 
there is room for some error and deception. We 
hear nothing of causing the blind to see, the lame 
to walk, the deaf to hear, the lepers to be cleansed *• 



* Jortiii's Remarks, vol. ii- p. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



213 



There are also instances in Christian writers of re- 
puted miracles, which were natural operations, 
though not known to be such at the time ; as that 
of articulate speech after the loss of a great part of 
the tongue. 

IV. To the same head of objection, nearly, may 
also be referred accounts, in which the variation of 
a small circumstance may have transformed some 
extraordinary appearance, or some critical coin- 
cidence of events, into a miracle ; stories, in a word, 
which may be resolved into exaggeration. The 
miracles of the Gospel can by no possibility be ex- 
plained away in this manner. Total fiction will ac- 
count for any thing; but no stretch of exaggeratior) 
that has any parallel in other histories, no force of 
fancy upon real circumstances, could j)roduce the 
narratives which we now have. The feeding of five 
thousand w^ith a few loaves and fislies surpasses all 
bounds of exaggeration ; the raising of Lazarus ; 
of the widow's son at Nain, as well as many of 
the cures which Christ wrought, come not within 
the compass of misrepresentation. I mean, that 
it is impossible to assign any position of circum- 
stances, however peculiar ; any accidental efiects, 
however extraordinary ; any natural singularity 
which could supply an origin or foundation to these 
accounts. 

Having thus enumerated several exceptions, 
which may justly be taken to relations of miracles, 
it is necessary when we read the Scriptures, to bear 
in our minds this general remark, That, although 
there be miracles recorded in the New Testamicnt, 
which fall within some or other of the exceptions 
here assigned, yet that they are united with others, 
to which none of the same exceptions extend, and 
that their credibility stands upon this union. Thus 



214 



THE EVIDENCES 



the visions and revelations which Saint Paul as- 
serts to have been imparted to him, ma}^ not, in 
their separate evidence, be distinguishable from the 
visions and revelations which many others have 
alleged ; but here is the difference. Saint Paul's 
pretensions were attested by external miracles 
wrought by himself, and by miracles wrought in the 
cause to which these visions relate ; or, to speak 
more properly, the same historical authority which 
informs us of the one, informs us of the other. 
This is not ordinarily true of the visions of enthu- 
siasts, or even of the accounts in which they are 
contained. Again : Some of Christ's own miracles 
were momentary ; as the transfiguration, the ap- 
pearance and voice from Heaven at his baptism, a 
voice from the clouds upon one occasion afterwards 
(John xii. 28.) and some others. It is not denied 
that the distinction which we have proposed con- 
cerning miracles of this species, applies in diminu- 
tion of the force of the evidence, as much to these 
instances as to others ; but this is not the case 
with all the miracles ascribed to Christ, nor with 
the greatest part, nor with many. Whatever force 
therefore there may be in the objection, we have 
numerous miracles which are free from it; and 
even those to which it is applicable, are little affect- 
ed by it in their credit, because there are few who, 
admitting the rest, will reject them. If there be 
miracles of the New Testament which come within 
any of the othei" heads into which we have distri- 
buted the objections, the same remark must be re- 
peated ; and this is one way in which the unex- 
ampled number and variety of the miracles ascribed 
to Christ strengthened the credibility of Christia- 
nity ; for it precludes any solution which imagi- 
nation, or even which experience might suggest, 
concerning some particular miracles, if considered 
independently of others. The miracles of Christ 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 215 

were of various kinds and performed in great 
varieties of situation, form, and manner; at Jeru- 
salem, the metropolis of the Jewish nation and reli- 
gion ; in different parts of Judea and Galilee ; in 
cities, in villages ; in synagogues, in private houses ; 
in the street, in highways; with preparation, as in th^ 
case of Lazarus ; by accident, as in the case of the 
widow's son of Nain ; when attended by multitudes, 
and when alone wath the patient ; in the midst of 
his disciples, and in the presence of his enemies ; 
with the common people around him, and before 
Scribes and Pharisees, and rulers of the synagogues. 

I apprehend that, when we remove from the 
comparison the cases which are fairly disposed of 
by the observations that have been stated, many 
cases will not remain. To those which do remain, 
we apply this final distinction, — That there is not 
satisfactory evidence that persons, pretending to 
he original witnesses of the miracles, passed their 
lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, volun- 
tarily undertaken and undergone in attestation of 
the accounts zvhich they delivered, and properly m 
consequence of their belief of the truth of those Uc- 
counts. 



* Not only healing every species of disease, but turning water 
into wine (Johnii); feeding multitudes with a tew loaves and 
fishes (Matt. xiv. ; Mark vi. 35. ; Luke is:. 12. ; Jolin iv. 5.) ; walk- 
ing on the sea (Matt xiv. 23.); cahning a storm (Matt. viii. 26. 
Luke viii. 23.) ; a celestial voice at his baptism, and miraculous ap- 
pearance (Matt. iii. 17. ; afterwards John xii. 28.); his transfigura- 
tion (Matt, xvii. 1—8 ; Mark ix. 2. ; Luke ix. 28. ; 2 Ep. Peter i, 
16, 17.); raising the dead in three distinct instances (Matt. ix. 18. ; 
Mark Vo 22. ; Luke viii. 41. ; Luke vii. 14. ; John xi.) 



il6 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER IL 

J8uT they with whom w e argue, have undoubt- 
edly a right to select their own examples. The in- 
stances with which Mr. Hume has chosen to con- 
front the miracles of the New Testament, and 
which, therefore, we are entitled to regard as the 
strongest which the history of the world could 
supply to the inquiries of a very acute and learned 
adversary, are the three following : — 

I. The cure of a blind and of a lame man at 
Alexandria, by the Emperor Vespasian, as related 
by Tacitus. 

II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant 
in a Spanish church, as told by Cardinal de Retz; 
and, 

III. The cures said to be performed at the tomb 
of the Abbe Paris, in the early part of the eighteenth 
century. 

I. The narrative of Tacitus is delivered in these 
terms: — One of the common people of Alex«- 
andria, known to be diseased in his eyes, by the ad- 
monition of the god Serapis, whom that superstiti- 
ous nation worship above all other gods, prostrated 
himself before the emperor, earnestly imploring 
from him a remedy for his blindness, and entreat- 
ing that he would deign to anoint with his spittle 
his cheeks and the balls of his eyes. Another,^ 
diseased in his baud, requested, by the admonition 
of the same god, that he might be touched by the 
foot of the emperor. Vespasian at first derided 
^nd despised their application : afterwards, when 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



217 



they continued to urge their petitions, he sometimes 
appeared to dread the imputation of vanity ; at 
other times, by the earnest suppUcation of the pa- 
tients and the persuasion of his flatterers, to be in^ 
duced to hope for success. At length he com- 
manded an inquiry to be made by physicians, whe- 
ther such a blindness and debility were vincible by 
human aid. The report of the physicians contained 
various points ; that, in the one, the power of vision 
was not destroyed, but would return if the obstacles 
were removed ; that, in the other, the diseased 
joints might be restored, if a healing power were 
applied ; that it was, perhaps, agreeable to the gods 
to do this ; that the emperor was elected by divine 
assistance ; lastly, That the credit of the success 
would be the emperor s ; the ridicule of the disap- 
pointment would fall upon the patients. Vespasian, 
believing that every thing was in the power of his 
fortune, and that nothing was any longer incredible, 
whilst the multitude which stood by eagerly ex- 
pected the event, with a countenance expressive of 
joy, executed what he was desired to do. Imme- 
diately tlie hand was restored to its use, — and light 
returned to the blind man. They who were pre- 
sent relate both these cures, even at this time, when 
there is nothing to be gained by lying*/' 

Now, though Tacitus wrote this account tuentV' 
seven years after the miracle is said to have been 
performed, and wrote at Rome of what passed at 
Alexandria, and wrote also from report ; and al- 
though it does not appear that he had examined the 
story, or that he believed it (but rather the con- 
trary) yet I think his testimony sufficient to prove 
that such a transaction took place ; by wijich J 
mean, that the two men in question did apply to 



* Tacit. Hist, lib, iv. 



218 



THE EVIDENCES 



Vespasian ; that Vespasian did touch the diseased 
in the manner related, and that a cure was reported 
to have followed the operation. But the aftair 
labours under a strong and just suspicion, that the 
whole of it was a concerted imposture, brought about 
by collusion between the patients, the physician, 
and the emperor. This solution is probable, be- 
cause there was every thing to sugo;est, and eveiy 
thing to facilitate such a scheme. The miracle was 
calculated to confer honour upon the emperor, and 
upon the god Serapis. It was achieved in the 
midst of the emperor's flatterers and followers; in 
a city and amongst a populace before - hand de- 
voted to his interest, and to the w^orship of the god ; 
"where it would have been treason and blasphemy 
together to have contradicted the fame of the cure, 
or even to have questioned it ; and, what is very 
observable in the account is, that the report of the 
physicians is just such a report as would have been 
made of a case in which no external marks of the 
disease existed, and which, consequently, was ca- 
pable of being easily counterfeited, vi^. That in the 
tirst of the patients, the organs of vision were not 
destroyed ; that the weakness of the second was in 
his joints. The strongest circumstance in Tacitus's 
narration is, that the first patient was ( notiis tube 
oculorum ) remarked, or notorious, for the disease 
in his eyes. But this was a circumstance which 
might have found its way into the story in its pro^ 
gress from a distant country, and during an interval 
of thirty years ; or it miglit be true that the malady 
of the eyes was notorious, yet that the nature and 
degree of the disease had never been ascertained: 
a case by no means uncommon. The euperor s re- 
serve was easily atfected ; or it is possible he might 
not be in the secret. There does not seem to be 
much weight in the observation of Tacitus : — That 
they who were present continued even then to re- 



OF CHRISTIAN-IXr. 



219 



late the story, when there was nothing to be gained 
by the lie. It only proves that those who had told 
the story for many years, persisted in it. The state 
of mind of the witnesses and spectators at the time, 
is the point to be attended to. Still less is there of 
pertinency in Mr. Hume's eulogium on the cautious 
and penetrating genius of the historian ; for it does 
not appear that the historian believed it. The 
terms in which he speaks of Serapis, the deity to 
whose interposition the miracle was attributed, 
scarcely suffer us to suppose that Tacitus thought 
the miracle to be real : " By the admonition of the 
god Serapis, whom that superstitious nation ( dedita 
super st'itionih us gens J worship above all other gods." 
To have brought this supposed mira::le within the 
limits of comparison with the miracles of Christ, it 
ought to have appeared that a person of a low and 
private station, in the midst of enemies, with the 
whole power of the country opposing him, with 
every one around him j)rejudiced or interested 
against his claims or character, pretended to per- 
form these cures ; and required the spectators, upon 
the strength of what they saw, to give up tiieir 
firmest hopes and opinions, and follow him through 
a life of trial and danger ; that many were so mov- 
ed as to obey his call, at the ex pence, both of 
every notion in which they had been brought up, 
and of their ease, safety, and reputation ; and that 
by these beginnings a change was produced in the 
world, the effects of which remain to this day: — a 
case, both in its circumstances and consequences, 
very unlike any thing we find in Tacitnss relation. 

II. The story taken from the Memoirs of Car- 
dinal de Retz, which is the second example alleged 
by Mr. Hume, is this : — "In the church of Sara- 
gossa, in Spain, the canons showed me a man whose 
business it was to light the lamps; telling me, that 



THE EVIDENCES 



he had been several years at the gate with one leg 
only, I saw him with two 

It is stated by Mr. Hume that the cardinal, who 
relates this story, did not believe it; and it no- 
where appears that he either examined the limb, 
or asked the patient, or indeed any one, a single 
question about the matter. An artificial leg, 
wrought with art, would be sufficient, in a place 
where no such contrivance had ever before been 
heard of, to give origin and currency to the report. 
The ecclesiastics of the place would, it is probable, 
favour the story, inasmuch as it advanced the 
honour of their image and church ; and if they pa- 
tronized it, no other person at Saragossa, in the 
middle of the last century, would care to dispute it. 
The story likewise coincided not less with the wishes 
and preconceptions of the people, than with the in- 
terests of tneir ecclesiastical rulers ; so that there 
was prejudice backed by authority, and both operat- 
ing upon extreme ignorance, to account for the 
success of the imposture. If, as I have suggested, 
the contrivance of an artificial limb was then new, 
it would not occur to the cardinal himself to suspect 
it; especially under the carelessness of mind with 
w^hich he heard the tale, and the little inclination 
he felt to scrutinize or expose its fallacy. 

III. The miracles related to have been wrought at 
the tomb of the Abbe Paris, admit in general of this 
solution. The patients who frequented the tomb, 
xvere so affected by their devotion, their expecta- 
tion, the place, the solemnity, and above all, by the 
sympathy of the surrounding multitude, that many 
of them weretlii'own into violent convulsions ; which 
convulsions, in certain instances, produced a re- 



* LIv. iv- A. D. 1G64. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



221 



«noval of disorders depending upon obstruction. 
We shall, at this day, have the less difficulty in ad- 
mitting the above account, because it is the very 
same thing as hath lately been experienced in the 
operations of animal magnetism ; and the report of 
the French physicians upon that mysterious remedy 
is very applicable to the present consideration, viz. 
That the pretenders to the art, by working upon the 
imaginations of their patients, were frequently able 
to produce convulsions ; that convulsions so pro- 
duced, are amongst the most powerful, but, at the 
same time, most uncertain and unmanageable ap- 
plications to the human frame which can be em- 
ployed. 

Circumstances which indicate this explication 
in the case of the Parisian miracles, are the fol- 
lowing : — 

1. They were tentative. Out of many thousands 
sick, infirm, and diseased persons, who resorted 
to the tomb, the professed history of the miracles 
contains only nine cures. 

2. The convulsions at the tomb are admitted. 

3. The diseases were, for the most part, of that 
sort which depends upon inaction and obstruction ; 
as dropsies, palsies, and some tumours. 

4. The cures were gradual ; some patients at- 
tending many days, some several weeks, and som.ei 
several months. 

5. The cures were many of them incomplete. 

6. Others were temporary *. 

So that all the wonder we are called upon to ac- 
count for is, that out of an almost innumerable 
multitude which resorted to the tomb for the cure 
of their complaints, and many of whom were there 



* The reader will find these particulars verified in tlie detail, by 
the accurate inquiries of the present Bishop of Sarura, in his Crite- 
rion of Miracles, p. et seq. 



THE EVIDENCES 



agitated by strong convulsions, a very small pro- 
portirn experienced a beneficial change in their 
constitution, especially in the action of the nerves 
and glands. 

Some of the cases alleged do not require that we 
should have recourse to this solution. The first 
case in the catalogue is scarcely distinguishable 
from the progress of a natural recovery. It was 
that of avoun^ man, who laboured under an inflam- 
mation of one eye^ and had lost the sight of the 
other. The inflamed eye was relieved ; but the 
blindness of the other remained. The inflammation 
had before been abated by medicine ; and the 
young man, at the time of his attendance at the 
tomb, was using a lotion of laudanum ; and, what 
is a still more material part of the case, the inflam- 
mation, after some interval, returned. Another 
case was that of a young man who had lost his sight 
by the puncture of an awl, and the discharge of the 
aqueous humour through the wound. The sight, 
ivhich had been gradually returning, was much im- 
proved during his visit to the lomb ; that is, pro- 
bably, in the same degree in which the discharged 
humour was replaced by fresh secretions ; and it is 
observable, that these two are the only cases which, 
from their nature, should seem unlikely to be af- 
fected by convulsions. 

In one material respect, I allow that the Parisian 
miracles were different from those related by Ta- 
citus, and from the Spanish miracle of the Cardinal 
de Retz. They had not, like them, all the power 
and all the prejudice of the country on their side to 
begin with. They were alleged by one party 
against another ; by the Jansenists against the Je- 
suits. These were of course opposed and examined 
by their adversaries. The consequence of which 
examination w^as, that many falsehoods were de- 
tected ; that with something really extraordinary 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



££3 



much fraud appeared to be mixed; and if some of 
the cases upon which designed misrepresentation 
could not be charcred, were not at the time satis- 
factorily accounted for, it Avas because the efficacy 
of strong spasmodic affections was not then suffi- 
ciently known. Finally, The cause of Jansenism 
did not rise by the miracles, but sunk, although the 
miracles had the anterior persuasion of all the nu- 
merous adherents of that cause to set out with. 

These, let us remember, are the strongest ex- 
amples which the history of ages supplies. In 
none of them was the miracle unequivocal, — by 
none of them were established prejudices and per- 
suasions overthrown, — of none of them did the 
credit make its way, in opposition to authority and 
power, — ■ by none of them were many induced to 
commit themselves, and that in contradiction to 
prior opinions, to a life of mortification, danger, 
and sufferings, — none were called upon to attest 
tiiem at the ex pence of their fortunes and safety 



* It may be thought that the historian of the Parisian miracles, 
M. Montgeron, forms an exception to this last assertion. He pre- 
sented liis book (with a suspicion, as it slwuld seem, of the danger 
of what he was doin^) to the king; and was sliortly afterwards 
committed to prison, from w hich he never came out. Had the mi- 
racles been unequivo(;al, and had M- Montgeron been originally 
Toijvineed by them, I should have allowed this exception. It^vould 
have stood, I think, alone in the argument of our adversaries. But, 
beside what has been observed of the dubious nature of the niiracieS; 
the account whicli M. Montgeron has himself left of his conversion! 
show s both the state of his mind, and that his permasion luas 7iot 
built upon external miraeles. '* Scarcely had 1 entered the church- 
yard, when he was struck," he tells us, " Avith awe and reverence, 
baving never before heard prayers pronounced with so much ardour 
and transport as he observed amongst the supplicants at the tomb. 
Upon tliis, throwing liimself on his knees, resting his elbows on the 
tomb-sione, and coveriiig his face with his hands, he spake the fol- 
lowing priiyer: — " O thou, by whose intercession so many miracles 
are said to be performed, if it be true that a part of thee surviveth 
the ^jrave, and that thou hast influence with the Almighty, have 



224 



THE EVIDENCES 



pity on the darkness of my llll(]cr^landing ; and through his mercy 
obtain the remo\al of it." — Having prayed thus, " many thou«;hts," 
as he sayeth, " began to open themselves to his mind \ and so pro- 
found was his attention, that lie continued oil his knees four hours 
not in the least dirtnrbed hy the vast crowd of surrounding sup- 
plicants. During this time, all the arguments which he had ever 
heard or read in favour of Christianity, occurred to him witli so 
much force, and seemed so strong and convincing, that he -w^ent 
home fully satisfied of the truth of religion in general, and of the 
holiness and power of that person who (as he supposed) had engaged 
the Divine goodness to enlighten his understanding so suddenly." 
Douglas's Crit. of Mir. p, 214. 



OF CHRISTIANITr. 



iPART Hi 



OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTER L 

Prophecy. 

XsAiAH lii. 13, and liii. ''Behold, my servant shall 
deal prudently ; he shall be exalted and extolled, 
and be very high. As many vi-ere astonished at 
thee (his visage was so marred more than any 
man, and his form more than the sons of men) ; so 
shall he sprinkle many nations ; the kings shall 
shut their mouths at him : for that which had not 
been told them, shall they see ; and that which 
they had not heard shall they consider. — Who 
hath believed our report ? and to whom is the arm 
of the Lord revealed ? For he shall gro^v up before 
him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry 
ground : he hath no form nor comeliness ; and 
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we 
should desire him. He is despised and rejected of 
men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: 
and we hid, as it were, our fiices from him ; he wa,-? 
despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he 
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet 
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, ami 

Q 



226 



THE EVIDENCES 



afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgres- 
sions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastise- 
lYient of our peace was upon him ; and with hi§ 
stripes v,e are healed. All we, like sheep, have 
gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own 
^vay; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all. He was oppressed, and be was afflicted, 
yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought as a 
lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her 
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He 
was taken from prison and from judgment ; and 
who shall declare his generation ? for he was cut 
off out of the land of the living: for the transgres- 
sion of my people was he stricken. And he made 
his grave with the wicked^ and with the rich in his 
death ; because he had done no violence, neither 
was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the 
Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief. 
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and 
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall 
be satisfied ; by his knowledge shall my righteous 
servant justify many ; for he shall bear their ini- 
quities. Therefore will I divide him a portion 
with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with 
the strong; because he hath poured out his soul 
unto death ; and he was numbered with the trans- 
gressors, and he bare the sin of many, and mad© 
intercession for the transgressors." 

These words are extant in a book, purporting to 
contain the predictions of a writer who lived seven 
centuries before the Christian aera. 

That material part of every argument from 
prophecy ; namely, that the words alleged were 
actually spoken or written before th^ fact to which 
Uiey are applied took place, or could by any natu- 
ral means be foreseen, is, in the present instance, 
incontestable. . The record gomes out o_f tiie cus- 



OF CHRISTlANITr. 227 

tody of adversaries. The Jews, as an ancient fa- 
ther well observed, are our librarians. The passage 
is in their copies, as well as in ours. With many 
attempts to explain it away, none has ever been 
made by them to discredit its authenticity. 

And, what adds to tlie force of the quotation is, 
that it is taken from a writing declaredly prophetic : 
a writing, professing to describe such future. trans^ 
actions and changes in the world, as were con- 
nected with the fate and interests of the Jewish 
nation. It is not a passage in an historical or de- 
votional composition, which, because it turns out 
to be applicable to some future events, or to some 
future situation of affairs, is presumed to have been 
oracular. The words of Isaiah were delivered by 
him in a prophetic character, with the solemnity 
belonging to that character : and what he so deli- 
vered \Aas all along understood by the Jewish 
reader to refer to something that was to take place 
after the time of the author. The public senti- 
ments of the Jews concerning the design of Isaiah's 
writings, are set forth in the book of Ecclesiasticus : 

He saw, by an excellent spirit, w hat should come 
to pass at the last; and he comforted them that 
mourned in Sion. He shewed what should come 
to pass .for ever, and secret things or ever they 
came." Chap, xlviii. 24. 

It is also an advantage which this prophecy pos- 
sesses, that it is intermixed with no other subject. 
It is entire, separate, and uninterruptedly directed 
to one scene of things. 

The application to the prophecy of the evangelic 
histury is plain and appropriate. Here is no double 
sense ; no figurative language, but w^hat is sufficient- 
ly intelligible to every reader of every country. 
The obscurities (by which I mean the expressions 
that require a knowledge of local diction, and of 
local allusiota) are few, and not of great import^ 
ance. Nor have I found that varieties of reading, 



225 



THE EVIDENCES 



or a different construing of the original, produce 
any material alteration in the sense of the pro- 
phecy. Compare the common translation with 
that of Bishop Lowth, and the difference is not 
considerable. So far as they do differ, Bishop 
Lovvth's corrections, which are the faithful result of 
an accurate examination, bring the description 
nearer to the New Testament history than it was 
before. In the fourth verse of the fifty-third chap- 
ter, what our Bible renders ^' stricken," he translates 
judicially stricken and in the eighth verse, the 
clause, " he was taken from prison and from judg- 
ment," the bishop gives, by an oppressive judg- 
ment he was taken off.'' The next words to these, 
" who shall declare his generation ?" are much 
cleared up in their meaning, by the bishop's ver- 
tion ; his manner of life who shall declare ?" i. e, 
M ho would stand forth in his defence ? The for- 
mer part of the ninth verse, " and he made his 
grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 
death," which inverts the circumstance of Christ s 
passion, the bishop brings out in an order perfectly 
agreeable to the event; **and his grave was ap- 
pointed with the wicked ; but with the rich man was 
his tomb." The words in the eleventh verse, by 
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
many," are, in the bishop s version, by the knozv- 
ledge of him shall my righteous servant justify 
many." 

It is natural to inquire what turn the Jews them* 
selves give to this prophecy *. There is good proof 
that the ancient llabbius explained it of their ex- 
pected Messiah f; but their modern expositors 



* Yaticiniiini hoc Esaae est carnificiaa RabBinoram, de quo ali- 
qui Jiidaei mihi confess! suntj Rabbinos suos ex propheticis scrip-^ 
turis i'ucile se extricare potuisse modo Esaias tacuissct^ ffuhe, Th^t^. 
Jud. p- 313, quoted by Poole, in loc, 

+ Hulse,Theol. Jud.p.439, 



OF CriRISTlANITr. 



2^9 



concur, I think, in representing it as a description 
of the calamitous state and intended restoration of 
the Jewish people, who are here, as they siy, exhi- 
bited under the character of a single person. I 
have not discovered that their exposition rests upon 
^ny critical arguments, or upon these in any other 
than a very minute degree. The clause in the 
eighth verse, which we render *' for the transgres- 
sion of my people was he stricken," and in the 
margin, was the stroke upon him," the Jews read 
for the transgression of my people was the stroke 
upon them'' And what they allege in support of 
the alteration amounts only to this, that the Hebrew 
pronoun is capable of a plural, as well as of a sin- 
gular signification ; that is to say, is capable of 
their construction as well as ours And this is 



* Bishop Lowtli adopts in tliis place the reading of the Seventy, 
which gives smitten to death: " for the 1iansu:ression of my people 
was iic smitten to death." The addition of the words " to death," 
jnakes an end of the Jewish interpretation of the ctaiise. And tlis^ 
authority upon which this reading- (though not given by the present 
Hebrew text) is adopted, Dr. Kennieot has set forth by an argu- 
ment, not only so cogent, but so clear and popular, that 1 beg leave 
to transcribe the substance of it into this note: — *' Origen, after 
fiaving quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Mcssi;di, tells 
us, that, having once made use of this passage in a dispute against 
some that were accounted wise among the Jews, one of them re- 
plied that the words did not mean one man, but one people, th» 
Jews, who were smitten of God, and dispersed among the Gentiles 
for their conversion; that he thou urged many parts of ihis prophe- 
cy, to show the absurdity of this interpretation ; and that he seemed 
t@ press them the hardest by this sentence ; — " For the transgression 
of my people was he smitten lo death." Now, as f )rigen, the author 
of the Hexapla, nuist have understood Hebrew, we eatniot suppose 
that he would have nrged this last text as so decisive, if the Greek 
Tersion had not, agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these 
wise Jews woukl have been at all distressed by this quotation, nidrss 
the Hebrew text had been read agreeably to the words "to death.' 
on which the argument principally dc|>endc<l ; for, by quoting it im- 
mediately, they would have triumphed over him, and reprobated liis 
Greek version. This, whenever they ci;nld do it, w as their constant 
practice in their disputes with the Christians. Origen hinjself, w ho 
iaboripnsly compared the Hebrew text m itii the Septuagint, lias re- 
corded the necessity of arguing witlj the Jews from such passages 



2S0 



THE EVIDENCES 



all the variation contended for ; the rest of the pro* 
phecy they read as we do. The probability, there- 
fore, of their exposition, is a subject of which we 
are as capable of judging as themselves. This 
judgment is open indeed to the good sense of every 
attentive reader. The application which the Jews 
contend for, appears to me to labour under insu- 
perable difficuilies; in particular, it may be de- 
manded of them to explain in whose name or per- 
son, if the Jewish people be the sutterer, does the 
prophet speak, when he says " He hath borne ou?^ 
griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem 
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted ; but he 
was w'ounded for ou?^ transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him, and with his stripes zve are healed." 
Again, the description in the seventh verse, " he 
was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened 
not his mouth ; he is brought as a lamb to the 
slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he opened not his mouth," quadrates with 
no part of the Jewish history with w hich we are ac- 
quainted. The mention of the " grave,'' and the 
tomb," in the ninth verse, is not very applicable 
to the fortunes of a nation ; and still less so is the 
conclusion of the prophecy in the twelfth verse, 
which expressly represents the sufferings diS volun- 
tary, and the sutterer as interceding for the offend- 
ers, " because he had poured out his soul unto 
death; and he was numbered with the transgressors, 



on]}' as were in the Scptiiagint agreeable to the Hebrew. Where- 
tbro, as Origen had carefully compared the Greek version of the 
8cptnHgint uith Ihe Hebrew text : and as he puzzled and confound- 
ed the learned Jews, by urging- upon Iheni the reading- to death'* 
in this place, it seems almost impossible not to conclude, both from 
Origen's argument and the silence of his Jewish adversaries, thai 
the Hebrev, text at that time actually liad the word agreeably to the 
^cr^^ion of the {Seventy." — LcKtlCs Isaiah, p. 242. 



OF GHRISTIANITY. £31 

and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession 
for the transgressors." 



There are other prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment, interpreted by Christians to reiate to the 
Gospel history, which are deserving both of great 
regard, and of a very attentive consideration ; but 
I content myself with stating the above, as well be- 
cause I think it the clearest and the strongest of 
all, as because most of the rest, in order that their 
value be represented wuh any tolerable degree of 
fidelity, .require a discussion unsuitable to the 
limits and nature of this work. The reader will 
find them disposed in order, and distinctly explain- 
ed, in Bishop Chandler's treatise upon the subject; 
and he will bear in mind, what has been often, and^ 
I thi'nk, truly urged by the advocates of Chris- 
tianity, that there is no- otlier eminent person, to 
the history of whose life so many circumstances 
can be made to apply. They who object, that 
much has been done by the power of chance, the 
ingenuity of accommodation, and the industry of 
research, ought to try whether the same, or any 
thing like it, could be done, if Mahomet, or any 
other person, were proposed as the subject of Jew- 
ish prophecy. 

11. A second head of argument from prophecy 
is founded upon our Lord's predictions concerning 
the destruction of Jerusalem, recorded by three out 
of the four evangelists. 

Luke xxi. 5 — 25. And as some spake of the 
temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and 
gifts, he said. As for these things which ye behold^ 
the days will come, in the which there shall not be 
left one stone upon another that shall not be 
thrown down. And they asked him; saying, Mas- 



5133 



THE EVIDENCES 



ter, but when shall these thincfs be ? and what si^ii 
will there be when these things shall come to pass? 
And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived ; 
for many shall come in my name, saying, I am 
Christ ; and the time draweth near : go ye not 
therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of 
M-ars and commotions, be not terrified ; for these 
things must first come to pass ; but the end is not 
by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall 
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; 
and great earthquakes shall he in divers places, and 
famines and pestilences : and fearful sights and 
great signs shall there be from heaven. But before 
all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and 
persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, 
and into prisons, being brought before kings and 
rulers for my name's sake. And it shall turn to 
ou for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your 
earts, not to meditate before what ye shall an- 
swer ; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, 
which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- 
say, nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by 
parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends ; 
and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. 
And ye shall be hated of all men for my names 
sake. But there shall not ^n hair of your head 
perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. — 
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies, then know that the desolation thereof is 
nigh. Then let them which are in J udea flee to the 
mountains ; and let them which are in the midst of 
it depart out ; and let not them that are in the 
countries enter thereinto. For tiiese be the days of 
vengeance, that all things w^hich are written may be 
fulfilled. But wo unto them that are widi child, 
and to them that give suck, in those days ! for 
there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath 
upon this people. And they shall falj by the edge 
^if the swcrd, and shall be led away captive into all 



OF CHHISTIANITT. 



Q33 



nations ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of 
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be ful- 
filled;' 

In terms nearly similar, this discourse is related 
in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and the 
thirteenth of Mark. The prospect of the same 
evils drew from our Saviour, upon another occasion, 
the following affecting expressions of concern, which 
are preserved by St. Luke (xix. 41 — 44,) : And 
when he was come near, he beheld the city, and 
wept over it, saying. If thou hadst known, even 
thou, at least in this thy day, the things which be- 
long unto thy peace ; but now they are hid from 
tiiine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, 
tiiat thme enemies shall cast a trench about thee, 
and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every 
side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and 
thy children within thee ; and they shall not leave 
in thee one stone upon another : because ihou 
knewest not the time of thy visitation." — These 
passages are direct and explicit predictions. Re- 
ferences to the same event, some plain, some para- 
bolical, or otherwise figurative, are found in divers 
other discourses of our Lord *. 

The general agreement of the description ^ itli 
the event, viz. with the ruin of the Jewish nation, 
and the capture of Jerusalem under Vespasian, 
thirty- six years after Christ's death, is most evi- 
dent ; and the accordancy in various articles of de- 
tail and circuqistance has been' shown by many 
learned writers, It is also an advantage to the in- 
quiry, and to the argument built upon it, that we 
have received a copious account of tlie transaction 
from Jesephus, a Jewish and contempory historian^ 
This part of the case is perfectly free from doubt. 



* Matt. xi. 33—40. xxii. 1—7. Mark xxii. t— 12. Lukexiii, 
1—9. XX. 9— 20. xxi. ^13, > 



^34 



THE EYIBENCES 



The only question which, in my opinion, can be 
raised upon the subject, is, Whether the pro- 
phecy was really delivered before the event ? — I 
shall apply, therefore, my observations to this point 
solely. 

1. The judgment of antiquity, though varying in 
the precise year of the publication of the three 
Gospels, concurs in assigning them a date prior to 
the destruction of Jerusalem 

2. This judgment is confirmed by a strong pro- 
bability arising from the course of human life. 
The destruction of Jerusalem took place in the 
seventieth vear after the birth of Christ. The 
three evangelists, one of whom was his immediate 
companion, and the other two associated with his 
companions, were, it is probable, not much younger 
than he was. They must, consequently, have been 
fiir advanced in life when Jerusalem was taken ; 
and no reason has been given why they would defer 
writin::^ fheir histoi ies so ion^y. 

3. t ^^^^ evangelists, at the time 6f writing 
the Gospels, had known of the destruction of 
Jerusalem, by which catastrophe the prophecies 
were plainly fulfiiled, it is most probable that, in 
recording the predictions, they would have drop- 
ped some word or other about the completion ; 
in like manner as Luke, after relating the de- 
nunciation of a dearth by Agabus, adds, " which 
came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar:];;" 
whereas the prophecies are given distinctly in 
one chapter of each of the first three Gospels, and 
referred to in several diflisrent passages of each ; 
and, in none of all these places does there ap- 
pear the smallest intimation that the things spoken 



Lardner, voi. 13, 
t Le Clerc, Diss. HI. de Quat. Ev. num. vii. p.^41. 
I Arts xi. 28. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



£35 



of were come to pass. I do aHmit that it would 
have been the part of an impostor, who wished 
his readers to beheve that his book was written 
before the event, when in truth it was written 
after it, to have suppressed any such intimation 
carefully. But this was not the character of the 
authors of the Gospel : — cunning was no quality 
of theirs. Of all writers in the world, they thouglit 
the least of providing against objections. IMore- 
over, there is no clause in any one of them that 
makes a profession of having written prior to the 
Jewish wars, which a fraudulent purpose would 
have led them to pretend. They have done nei- 
ther one thing nor the other : they have neither 
inserted any words which might signify to the 
reader that their accounts were written befoi^e the 
destruction of Jerusalem, which a sophist \\ ould have 
done ; nor have they dropped a hint of the com- 
pletion of the prophecies recorded by them, which 
an unclcsigniug writer, writing ^///e?' the event, could 
hardly, on some or other of the many occasions 
that presented themselves, have missed of doing. 

4. The admonitions* which Christ is represent- 
ed to have given to his followers, to save them- 
selves bv flio;ht, are not easilv accounted for up- 
on the supposition of the prophecy being fabri- 
cated after the event. Either the Christians, 
when the siege approached, did make their escape 
from Jerusalem, or they did not : if they did, 



* Luke xxi. 20, 21, " When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed 
with ariiiies, tlieu know that the desolation thereof is uigli ; theu let 
tliem whicii are in Judoa flee to the mountains; and let tiiem which 
are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the 
countries enter thereinlo." 

Matt. xiv. IS. " Wiien ye shall see Jerusalem compassed witli 
annies,then let tl.em which be in Judea flee unto the mouuiains ; 
let him which is on the house-top nut come down to take any thing 
out of his house ; neither let him w hich is in the field return buck 
to take his clothes." 



Q36 



THE EVIDENCES 



they must have had the prophecy amongst them: 
if they did not know of any such prediction at 
the time of the siege, if they did not take notice of 
any such warning, it was an improbable fiction in 
a writer publishing his work near to that time 
(which, upon any, even the lowest and most dis- 
advantageous supposition, was the case with the 
Gospels now in our hands) and addressing his 
works to Jews and to Jewish converts (which Mat- 
thew certainly did) to state that the followers of 
Christ had received admonitions, of which they 
made no use when the occasion arrived, and of 
which, experience then recent proved, that those 
who were most concerned to know and re^^ard 
them, were ignorant or negligent. Even if the 
prophecies came to the hands of the evangelists 
through no better vehicle than tradition, it must 
have been a tradition vuhich subsisted prior to the 
event. And to suppose that, without any autho- 
rity whatever, without so much as even any tradi- 
tion to guide them, they had forged these passages, 
is to impute to them a degree of fraud and im- 
posture, from every appearance of which their 
compositions are as far removed as possible. 

5. I think that, if the prophecies had been com- 
posed after the event, there would have been more 
specification. The names or descriptions of the 
enemy, the general, the emperor, would have been 
found in them. The designation of the tia^e would 
have been more determinate. And I am fortihed 
in this opinion, by observing that the counterfeited 
prophecies of the Sibylline oracles, of the twelve 
patriarchs, and I am inclined to believe, most 
others of the kind, are mere transcripts of the his- 
tory, moulded into a prophetic form. 

it is objected, that the prophecy of the de- 
struction of Jerusalem is mixed, or connected 
with expressions which relate to the final judg- 



OF CHRlSTIANlTr. 257 

ment of the world ; and so connected, as to lead 
an ordinary reader to expect that these two events 
would not be far distant from each other. To 
which I answer, That the objection does not con- 
cern our present argument. If our Saviour actu- 
ally foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, it is suf- 
ficient, even although we should allow that the 
narration of the prophecy had combined what had 
been said by him upon kindred subjects, without 
accurately preserving the order, or always noticing 
the transition of the discourse. 



253 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER II. 
The Morality of the GospeL 

In stating the Morality of the Gospel as an ar» 
gunient of its truth, I ain willing to admit two 
points : first, That the teaching of morality was 
not the primary design of the mission ; secondly, 
That morality, neither in the Gospel, nor in any 
other book, can be a subject, properly speaking, of 
discovery. 

If I were to describe in a very few words the 
scope of Christianity as a revelation ^, I should 
say. That it was to influence the conduct of human 
life, by establishing the proof of a future state of 
reward and punishment ; — " to bring life and im- 
mortality to light." Ihe direct object, therefore, 
of the design is, To supply motives, and not rules ; 
sanctions, and not precepts; — and these were 
wliat mankind stood most in need of. The mem- 
bers of civilized society can, in all ordinary cases, 
judge tolerably well how they ought to act ; but 
without a future state, or, which is the same thing, 
without credited evidence of that state, they want 
a motive to their duty ; they want at least strength 
of motive sufficient to bear up against the force of 
passion, and the temptation of present advantage. 



* Great and inestimably beneficial ejfects may accrue from th« 
mission of Christ, and especially from his death, which do not be- 
Joiig to Christianity as Si revelation ; that is, they might have existed, 
and they might liave been accomplished, though we had never in 
this life been made acquainted with them. These efiects may b© 
very extensive ; they may be interesting even to oilier orders of 
i|itei%ent beings. 



OF CHRIStlANIXy. 



Their rules want authority. The most important 
service that can be rendered to human life, and 
that consequently which one might expect before- 
hand, would be the great end and office of a reve- 
lation from God, is to convey to the world autho- 
rized assurances of the reality of a future exist- 
ence; and although, in doing this, or by the mi- 
nistry of the same person by whom this is done, 
moral precepts, or examples, or illustrations of 
moral precepts, may be occasionally given, and be 
highly valuable, y^t still they do not form the pri-' 
ginal purpose of the mission. 

Secondly, Morality, neither in the Gospel nor in 
any other Ijook, can be a subject of Discovery, pro- 
perly so called. By which proposition, I mean that 
there cannot, in morality, be any thing similar to 
what are called Discoveries in Natural Philosophy, 
in the Arts of Life, and in some sciences ; — as the 
system of the universe, the circulation of the 
blood, the polarity of the magnet, the laws of gra- 
vitation, alphabetical writing, decimal arithmetic, 
and some other tilings of the same sort ; facts, or 
proofs, or contrivances, before totally unknown and 
unthought of. Whoever, therefore, expects, in 
reading the New Testament, to be struck with dis- 
coveries in morals in the manner in vVhich his mind 
was affected w hen he first came to the knowledge 
of the discoveries above mentioned ; or rather in 
the manner in which the world was affected by 
them when they were tirst published, '-^ expects 
what, as I appiehend, the nature of the subject 
renders it impossible that he should meet with ; and 
the foundation of my opinion is this, That the qua- 
lities of actions depend entirely upon their effects ; 
which effects must all along have been the subject 
of human experience. 

When it is once settled, no matter upon what 
principle, that to dp. good is virtue, the rest is cai- 



''tl\E EVIDENCES 



culatiori ; but since the calculation cannot be in- 
stituted concerning each particular action, we es- 
tablish intermediate rules; by which proceeding 
the business of morality is much facilitated, for 
then it is concerning oiir rules alone that we need 
enquire Whether, iii their tendency, they be bene- 
ficial?- — concerning our actions, we have only to 
ask Whether they be agreeable to the rules ? We 
refer actions to rules, and rules to public happi- 
tiess. Now, in the formation of these rules, there 
is no place for Discoi^ery, properly so called ; but 
there is ample room for the exercise of wisdom, 
judgment, and prudence. 

As I wish to deliver argument rather than pane- 
gyric, I shall treat of tiie morality of the Gospel, 
in subjection to these observations ; and after all, 
I think it such a morality as, considering from 
whom it came, is most extraordinary ; and such as, 
without allowins: some dej^ree of reality to the cha- 
racter and pretensions of the religion, it is difficult 
to account for; or, to place the argument a little 
lower in the scale, it is such a morality as com- 
pletely repels the supposition of its being the tra- 
dition of a barbarous age, or of a barbarous peo-^ 
pie, — of the religion being founded in folly, or of 
its being the production of craft ; and it repels also, 
in a great degree, the supposition of its having been 
the effusion of an enthusiastic mind. 

The division under which the subject may be 
most conveniently treated, is that of the things 
taught, and the manner of teaching. 

Under the first head, I should willingly, if the 
limits and nature of my work admitted of it, tran- 
scribe into this chapter the whole of what has 
been said upon the morality of the Gospel, by 
the author of The Internal Evidence of CJm^tian- 
it}/; because it perfectly agrees with my own opi- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



nion, and because it is impossible to say the same 
things so well. This acute observer of human 
nature, and as I believe sincere convert to Chris- 
tianity, appears to me to have made out satisfac- 
torily the two following points, viz. 

I. That the Gospel omits some qualities which 
have usually engaged the praises and admiration of 
mankind ; but which, in reality, and in their general 
effects, have been prejudicial to human happiness. 

II. That the Gospel has brought forward some 
virtues, which possess the highest intrinsic value ; 
but which have commonly been overlooked and 
contemned. 

The first of these Propositions he exemplifies in 
the instances of friendship, patriotism, active cou- 
rage, — in the sense in which these qualities are 
usually understood, and in the conduct which they 
often produce. 

The second, in the instances of passive courage 
or endurance of sufferings, patience under affronts 
and injuries, humility, irresistance, placability. 

The truth is. There are two opposite descriptions 
of character under which mankind may generally 
be classed. The one possesses vigour, firmness, 
resolution ; is daring and active, quick in its sensi- 
bilities, jealous of its fame, eager in its attachments, 
inflexible in its purpose, violent in its resentments. 

The other, meek, yielding, complying, forgiving ; 
not prompt to act, but willing to suffer ; silent and 
gentle under rudeness and insult, suing for recon- 
ciliation where others would demand satisfaction, 
giving way to the pushes of impudence, conceding 
and indulgent to the prejudices, the wrong-headed- 
ness, the intractability of those with whom it has 
to deal. 



R 



242 



THE EVIDENCES 



The former of these characters is, and ever hatfi 
been, the favourite of the world: — it is the cha- 
racter of great men. There is a dignity in it vAnch 
universally comaiands respect. 

The latter is poor-spirited, tame, and abject; 
yet so it hath happened, that, with the Founder of 
Christianity, this latter is the subject of his com- 
mendation, his precepts, his example ; and that 
the former is so in no part of its composition. 
This, and nothing else, is the character designed 
in the following remarkable passages : — " Resist 
not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on the 
right cheek, turn to him the other also ; and if any 
man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, 
let him have thy cloke also ; and whosoever shall 
compel thee to go a mile, go with hiui twain ; love 
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good 
to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
despitefully use you and persecute you." This 
certainly is not common-place morality : it is very 
original. It shows at least (and it is for that pur- 
pose we produce it) that no two things can be more 
different than the Heroic and the Christian cha- 
racter. 

Now, the author to whom I refer has not only 
remarked this difference more strongly than any 
preceding writer, but has proved, in contradiction 
to first impressions, to popular opinion, to the en- 
comiums of orators and poets, and even to the suf- 
frages of historians and moralists, that the latter 
character possesses the most of true worth, both 
as being most difficult either to be acquired or sus- 
tained, and as contributino- most to the happiness 
and tranquilhty of social life. — The state of his 
argument is as follows : — 

L If this disposition were universal, the case is 
c4ear, — - the world would be a society of friends ; 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



243 



whereas, if the other disposition were universal, it 
would produce a scene of universal contention. The 
world could not hold a generation of such men. 

11. If, what is the fact, the disposition be par- 
tial, — if a few be actuated by it, anriongst a mul- 
titude who are not, in whatever degree it does pre- 
vail, in the same proportion it prevents, allays, and 
terminates quarrels, the great disturbers of human 
happiness, and the great sources of human misery, 
so far as man's happiness and misery depend upon 
riaan. Without this disposition, enmities must not 
only be frequent, but, once begun, must be eternal ; 
for each retaliation being a fresh injury, and con- 
sequently requiring a fresh satisfaction, no period 
can be assigned to the reciprocation of affronts, and 
to the progress of hatred, but that which closes the 
lives, or at least the intercourse, of the parties. 

I would only add to these observations. That al- 
though the former of the two characters above de- 
scribed may be occasionally useful, — although, per- 
haps, a great General or a great Statesman may be 
formed by il, and these may be mstruments of im- 
portant benefits to mankind, — yet is this nothing 
more than what is true of many qualities which 
are acknowledged to be vicious. Envy is a quality 
of this sort ; I know not a stronger stimulus to exer- 
tion ; many a scholar, many an artist, many a sol- 
dier, has been produced by it ; nevertiieless, since in 
its general effects it is noxious, it is properly con- 
demned ; — certainly is not praised by sober mo- 
ralists. 

It was a portion of the same character as that 
we are defending, or rather of his love of the same 
character, which our Saviour displayed, in his re- 
peated correction of the ambition of his disciples ; 
his frequent admonitions, that greatness with them 
was to consist in humility ; his censure o£ that lov^ 
R 2 



244 



THE EVIDENCES 



of distinction and greediness of superiority, which 
the chief persons amongst his countrymen were 
wont on all occasions, great and little, to betray. 
*^ They (the Scribes and Pharisees) love the upper- 
most rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the 
synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to 
be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi ; but be not ye 
called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, even Christ, 
and all ye are brethren ; and call no man your 
father upon earth, for one is your Father, which is 
in Heaven ; neither be ye called Masters ; for om, 
is your Master, even Christ ; but he that is greatest 
among yoii shall be your servant ; and whosoever 
shall exalt himself shall be abased ; and he that 
shall humble himself shall be exalted^." I make 
Ho further remark upon these passages (because 
they are in truth only a repetition of the doctrine, 
different expressions of the principle, which we 
have already stated) except that some of the pas- 
sages, especially our Lord's advice to the guests at 
an entertainment I, seem to extend the rule to what 
^ve call Maimers ; which was both regular in point 
of consistency, and not so much beneath the dignity 
of our Lord's mission as may at first s'ght be sup- 
posed ; for bad manners are bad morals. 

Jt is sufficiently apparent, that the precepts we 
liave recited, or rather the disposition w^iich these 
precepts inculcate, relate to personal conduct from 
personal motives, — to cases in which men act from 
impulse for themselves, and from themselves. — 
When it comes to be considered what is necessary 
to be done for the sake of the public, and out of 
a regard to the general welfare (which consider- 
ation, for the most part, ought exclusively to govern 
fhe duties of men in public stations) it comes to a 



* Mait. xxiii. 9* See also Mark xii. 36. Luke xx. 4© ;xiv. 7, 
t Luke xLy. 7> 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



245 



case to which the rules do not belong. This dis- 
tinction is plain ; and if it were less so, the conse- 
quence would not be much felt; for it is very sel- 
dom that, in the intercourse of private life, men 
act with public views. The personal motives from 
which they do act, the rule regulates. 

The preference of the patient to the heroic cha- 
racter, which we have here noticed, and which the 
reader will find explained at large in the work to 
which we have referred him, is peculiarity in the 
Christian institution ; which I propose as an argu- 
ment of wisdom very much beyond the situation and 
natural character of the person who deUvered it. 

II. A second argument, drawn from the morality 
of the New Testament, is the stress which is laid 
by our Saviour upon the regulation of the thoughts; 
and I place this consideration next to the other, 
because they are connected. The other related to 
the malicious passions ; this to the yoluptuous. To- 
gether, they comprehend the whole character. 

" Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, mur- 
ders, adulteries, fornications," -&c. " These are 
the things which defile a man." Matt. xv. 19. 

" Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup 
and of the platter, huizvlt/iin they are full of extor- 
tion and excess. Ye are like unto whited sepul- 
chres, whicli indeed appear beautiful outward, but 
are within full of dead men's bones, and of all un- 
cleanness ; even so ye also outwardly a{)pear righte- 
ous unto men, but ivithin ye are full of hypocrisy 
and iniquity 

And more particularly that strong expression f , 

Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after 



* Matt, xxiii. 25, 27. 



i- Matt. V. 28. 



246 



THE EVIDENCES 



her, hath committed adultery with her ah^eady in 
his heart.*' 

There can be no doubt with any reflecting mindp 
but that the propensities of our nature must be 
subjected to regulation ; but the question is. Where 
the check ought to be placed, — upon the thought 
or only on the action ? In this question our Savi- 
our, in the texts here quoted, has pronounced a 
decisive judgment. He makes the controul of 
thought essential. Internal purity with him is 
every thing. Now, I contend that this is the only 
discipline which can succeed ; in other words, that 
a moral system which prohibits actions, but leaves 
the thoughts at liberty, will be ineffectual, and is 
thereiore unwise. I know not how to go about the 
proof of a point w^hich depends upon experience, 
and upon a knowledge of the human constitution, 
belter than by citing the judgment of persons who 
appear to have given great attention to the subject, 
and to be well qualified to form a true opinion 
about it. Boerhaave, speaking of this very decla- 
ration of our Saviour, " Whosoever looketh on a 
woman to lust after her, hath already committed 
adultery with her in his heart;'' and understanding 
it, as we do, to contain an injunction to lay the 
check upon the thoughts, was wont to say, That 

our Saviour knew mankind better than Socrates." 
Haller, who has recorded this saying of Boerhaave, 
adds to it the following remarks of his own^: — 

It did not escape the observation of our Saviour 
that the rejection of any evil thoughts was the best 
defence against vice ; tor, when a debauched per- 
son fills his imagination \uih impure pictures, the 
licentious ideas which he recalls, fail not to stimu- 
late his desires with a degree of violence which he 



* Lef iers to liis DaiKhlers. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



^47 



cannot resist. This will be followed by gratification, 
unless some external obstacle should prevent him 
from the commission of a sin which he had inter- 
nally resolved on." " Every moment of time (says 
our author) that is spent in meditations upon sin, 
increases the power of the dangerous object which 
has possessed our imagination. I suppose these 
reflections will be generally assented to. 

IIT. Thirdly, Had a teacher of morality been 
asked concerning a general principle of conduct, 
and for a short rule of life, — and had he instructed 
the person who consulted him, constantly to re- 
fer his actions to what he believed to be the will of 
his Creator, and constantly to have in view, not his 
own gratification alone, but the happiness and com- 
fort of those about him,'' he would have been 
thought, I doubt not, in any age of the world, and 
in any, even the most improved, state of morals, to 
have delivered a judicious answer ; because, by the 
first direction, he suggested the only motive which 
acts steadily and uniformly, in sight and out of 
sight, in familiar occurrences and under pressing 
temptations ; and, in the second, he corrected, w^hat 
of all tendencies in the human character slands 
most in need of correction, selfishness, or a con- 
tempt of other men's conveniency and satisfaction. 
In estimating the value of a moral rule, we are to 
have regard not only to the particular duty, but the 
general spirit; not only to what it directs us to do, 
but to the character which a compliance with its 
direction is hkely to form in us ; so, in the present 
instance, the rule hefc recited will never fail to make 
him who obeys \i considerate, not only of the rights, 
but of the feelings of other men, bodily and mental, 
in great matters and in small ; of the ease, the ac- 
commodation, the self - complacency of all with 



MS 



THE EVIDENCES 



whom he has any concern, especially of all who 
are in his power, or dependent upon his wilL 

Now what, in the most applauded philosopher of 
the most enlightened age of the world, would have 
been deemed worthy of his wisdom and of his cha- 
racter to say, Our Saviour hath said, and upon just 
such an occasion as that which we have feigned. 

" Then one of them, w hich was a lawyer, asked 
him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, 
which is the great commandment in the law ? Jesus 
said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy t Jod 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
all thy mind ; this is the first and great command- 
ment ; — and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt 
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two com- 
mandments hang all the law and the prophets*." 

The second precept occurs in Saint Matthew 
(xix. 16.) on another occasion similar to this ; and 
both of them, on a third similar occasion, in Luke 
X. 27. In these two latter instances, the question 
proposed w^as, What shall I do to inherit eternal 
life?" 

Upon all these occasions I consider the words of 
our Saviour as expressing precisely the same thing 
as what I have put into the mouth of the moral 
philosopher ; nor do I think that it detracts much 
from the merit of the answer, that these precepts 
are extant in the Mosaic code ; for his laying his 
finger, if I may so say, upon these precepts ; his 
drawing them out from the rest of that voluminous 
institution ; his stating of them, not simply amongst 
the number, but as the greatest and the sum of all 
others ; in a word, his proposing of them to his 
hearers for their rule and principle, was our Savi- 
our's own. 



* Matt, xxii, 35—40, 



OF CIIRISTIANITr. 



M9 



And what our Saviour had said upon the subject 
appears to me to have JLved the sentiment amongst 
his foUbwers. 

Saint Paul has it expressly, " If there be any 
other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in 
this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
self*' ;" and again, " For all the law is fulfilled in 
one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself f ." 

Saint John, in like manner, This commandment 
have we from him, That he who loveth God, love 
his brother also J." 

Saint Peter, not very differently : " Seeing that 
ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth, 
through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the bre- 
thren, see that you love one another with a pure 
heart fervently 

And it is so well known as to require no cita- 
tions to verify it, that this love, or charity, or, in 
other words, regard to the welfare of others, runs, 
in various forms, through all the perceptive parts of 
the apostolic writings. It is the theme of all their 
exhortations; that with which their morality begins 
and ends ; from which all their details and enume- 
rations set out, and into which they return. 

And that this temper, for some time at least, de- 
scended in its purity to succeeding Christians, is at- 
tested by one of the earliest and best of the remain- 
ing wi'itings of the apostohcal lathers, the Epistle of 
the Ptoman Clement. The meekness of the Chiis- 
tian character reigns throughout the whole of that 
excellent piece. The occasion called for it : it w'as 
to compose the dissentions of the church of Co- 
rinth ; and the venerable hearer of the apostles does 
not fall short, in the display of this principle, of the 



* Rom. xxiii. 9. 
X 1 Jolmiv. 21. 



t Gal. V. 14. 
§ 1 Peter i. 22. 



250 



THE EVIDENCES 



finest passages of their writings. He calls to the 
remembrance of the Corinthian church its former 
character, in which " ye were all of you," he tells 
them, " humble-minded, not boasting of any thing, 
desiring rather to be subject than to govern, to give 
than to receive, being content with the portion God 
had dispensed to you, and hearkening dihgently to 
his words; ye were enlarged in your bowels, having 
his sufferings always before your eyes ; — ye con- 
tended day and night for the whole brotherhood, 
that with compassion and a good conscience the 
num[)er of his elect might be saved ; — ye were sin- 
cere, and without offence towards each other ; — 
ye bewailed every one his neighbour's sins, esteem- 
ing their defects your own*." His prayer for them 
was for the ''return of peace, long-suffering, and 
patience f and his advice to those who might have 
been the occasion of difference in the society, is 
conceived in the true spirit, and with a perfect know- 
ledge of the Christian character : — *' Who is there 
among you that is generous ? — who that is com- 
passionate ? — who that has any charity ? — let him 
say if this sedition, this contention, and thcbC 
schisms, be upon mv account, I am ready to de- 
part, to go away whithersoever you please, and do 
whatsoever ve shall command me; only let the 
flock of C^hrist be in peace with the elders who are 
set over it. He that shall do this, shall get to him- 
self a very great honour in the Lord ; and there is 
no place but what will be ready to receive him : 
for the earth is the Lord's, and the fuluess thereof. 
These things they, who have their conversation to- 
\\ards God, not to be repented of, both have done, 
and will always be ready to do 



* Ep. CI?m. Rom. c 2; Archbishop Wake's Trans] alion. 
f li>. fv o'4. t lb- C.54. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



261 



This sacred principle, this earnest recommenda- 
tion of forbearance, lenity, and forgiveness, mixes 
v.ith all the writings of that age. There are more 
quotations in the apostolical fathers of texts which 
relate to these points than of any other. Christ's 
sayings had struck them. Not rendering," said 
Polycarp, the disciple of John, " evil for evil, or 
railing for railing, or striking for striking, or curs- 
ing for cursing*." Again, speaking of some whose 
behaviour had given great offence, " Be ye moder- 
ate,'' says he, on this occasion, and look not upon 
such as enemies, but call them back as suffering and 
erring members, that ye save your whole body)'." 

"fie ye mild at their anger," saith Ignatius, the 
companion of Pol3xarp, " humble at their boast- 
ings, — to their blasphemies return your prayers, to 
their error your firmness in the faith ; when they 
are cruel, be ye gentle; not endeavouring to imi- 
tate their way, let us be their brethien in all kind- 
ness and moderation ; but let us be followers of the 
Lord; — for who was ever more unjustly used, 
more destitute, more despised !" 

IV. A fourth quality, by which the morality of 
the Gospel is distinguished, is the exclusion of re- 
gard to fame and reputation. 

" Take heed that you do not your alms before 
men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no re- 
ward of your Father which is in Heaven 

*' When thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and 
when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father 
i^hich is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in 
secret, shall reward thee openly ||." 

And the rule, by parity of reason, is extended 
to all other virtues. 



* Pol. Ep. ad Phil. c. 2. 
§ Matt. vi. 1. 



+ lb. c. 11. 
II Ver. 6. 



THE EVIDENCES 



I do not think that either in these, or in any 
other passage of the New Testament, the pursuit 
of fame is stated as a vice ; it is only said that aa 
action, to be virtuous, must be inde})endent of it. 
I would also observe, That it is not publicity, but 
ostentation, which is prohibited ; not the mode, 
but the motive of the action, which is regulated. A 
good man will prefer that mode, as ^^ell as those 
objects of his beneficence, by which he can pro- 
duce the greatest effect ; and the view of this pur- 
pose may dictate sometimes publication, and some- 
times concealment. Either the one or the other 
may be the mode of the action, according as the end 
to be promoted by it appears to require ; but from 
the motive, the reputation of the deed, and the fruits 
and advantage of that reputation to ourselves, must 
be shut out, or, in whatever proportion they are not 
so, the action in that proportion fails of being 
yirtuous. 

This exclusion of regard to human opinion, is a 
difference, not so much in the duties to which the 
teachers of virtue would persuade mankind, as in the 
manner and topics of persuasion ; and in this view 
the difference is great. When ive set about to give 
advice, our lectures are full of the advantages of 
character, of the regard that is due to appearances 
and opinion, — of what the world, especially of what 
the good or great, will think or say, — of the value 
of public esteem, and of the qualities by which men 
acquire it. Widely different from this was our Sa- 
viour's instructions ; and the difference was founded 
upon the best reasons ; — for, however the care of 
reputation, — the authority of public opinion, or 
even of the opinion of good men, — the satisfaction 
of being well received and well thought of, — the 
benefit of being known and distinguished, are topics 
10 which we are fain to have recourse in our ex- 
hortations ; the true virtue is that which discards 



OF CHRISTIANITT, 25$ 

these considerations absolutely, and which retires 
from thein all to the single internal purpose of 
pleasing God. This at least was the virtue which 
our Saviour taught. And in teaching of this, he 
not only confined the views of his followers to the 
proper measure and principle of human duty, but 
acted in consistency with his office as a monitor 
from Heaven. 



Next to what our Saviour taught may be consi* 
tiered the manner of his teaching ; which was cx» 
tremely peculiar, yet, I think, precisely adapted to 
the peculiarity of his character and situation. His 
lessons did not consist of disquisitions, of any 
thing like moral essays, or like sermons, or like set 
treatises upon the several points which he men- 
tioned. When he delivered a precept, it was sel- 
dom that he added any proof or argument; still 
more seldom that he accompanied it with, what all 
precepts require, limitations and distinctions. His 
instructions were conceived in short, emphatic, sen- 
tentious rules, in occasional reliections, or in sound 
maxims. 1 do not tiiink that this was a natural, or 
would have been a proper, method for a philo- 
sopher or moralist ; or ttiat it is a method which 
can be successfully imitated by us. But I contend 
that it was suitable to the character which Christ 
assumed, and to the situation in which, as a teach- 
er, he was placed. He produced himself as a mes- 
senger from God. He put the truth of what he 
taught upon authority *. In the choice, therefore, 
of his mode of teaching, the purpose by him to be 



* / say unto yon, Swear not at all ; 2 say unto you, Resist not 
e^il : / say unto you, Love your enemies *. 

• Matt, V. 34, 39, 44* 



254 



THE EVIDENCES 



consulted was impression, because conviction, 
which forms the principal end of our discourses, 
was to arise in the minds of his followers from a 
different source, from their respect to his person 
and authority. Now, for the purpose of impres- 
sion singly and exclusively (I repeat again, that we 
are not here to consider the convincing of the un- 
derstanding) I know nothing which would have so 
great force as strong ponderous maxims, frequently 
urged, and frequently brought back to the thoughts 
of the hearers. I know nothing that could in this 
view be said better than Do unto others as ye 
would that others should do unto you " The first 
and great commandment is, Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God ; and the second is like unto it, 
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It must 
also be remembered, that our Lords ministry, upon 
the supposition either of one year or of three, com- 
pared with his work, was of short duration ; that, 
within this time, he had many places to visit, vari- 
ous audiences to address; that his person was ge- 
nerally besieged by crowds of followers; that he 
was sometimes driven away from the place where 
lie was teaching by persecution, and at other times 
tbought fit to withdraw himself from the commo- 
tions of the populace. Under these circumstances, 
nothing appears to have been so practicable, or 
likely to be so efficacious, as leaving, wherever he 
came, conciee lessons of duty. These circum- 
;stances at least show the necessity he was under of 
cotDprising what he delivered within a small com- 
pass. Li particular, his Sermon upon the Mount 
ou2;ht always to be considered with a view to these 
observations. — The question is not Whether a 
fuller, a more accurate, a more systematic, or a 
more argumentative discourse upon morals might 
have b^e^i pronounced ? but Whether more could 
have been said iu the same room, better adapted to 



\ 



OF CHRISTIANITr. 



255 



the exigencies of the hearers, or better calculated 
for the purpose of impression? Seen in this lights 
it has always appeared to me to be admirable. 
Dr. Lardner thought that this discourse was made 
up of what Christ had said at different times, and 
on different occasions, several of which occasions 
are noticed in Saint Luke's narrative. I can per- 
ceive no reason for this opinion. I believe that 
our Lord delivered this discourse at one time and 
place, in the manner related by Saint Matthew, and 
that he repeated the same rules and maxims at 
different times, as opportunity or occasion suggest- 
ed ; that they were often in his mouth, were re- 
peated to different audiences, and in various con- 
versations. 

It is incidental to tliis mode of moral instruc- 
tion, which proceeds not by proof but upon autho- 
rity, not by disquisition but by precept, tliat the 
rules will be conceived in absolute terms, leaving 
the application and the distinctions that attend it 
to the reason of the hearer. It is likewise to be 
expected, that they will be delivered in terms by so 
much the more forcible and energetic, as they have 
to encounter natural or general propensities. It is 
furtiier also to be remarked, that many of those 
strong instances which appear in our Lord's ser- 
mon, — such as If any man will smite thee on the 
right cheek, turn to him the other also :" "If any 
nian will sue thee at the law^, and take away thy 
coat, let him have thy cloke also " Whosoever 
shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain 
though they appear in the form of specific pre- 
cepts, are intended as descriptive of disposition and 
character. A specific compliance with" the pre- 
cepts would be of little value ; but the disposition 
which they inculcate is of the highest. He who 
should content himself with waiting for the occa- 
sion, and with literally observing the lule when the 



256 



THE EVIDENCES 



occasion offered, would do nothing, or worse than 
nothing ; but he who considers the character and 
disposition which is hereby inculcated, and places 
that disposition before hinri as the model to which he 
should bring his own, takes, perhaps, the best pos- 
sible method of improving the benevolence, and of 
calming and rectifying the vices of his temper. 

If it be said that this disposition is unattainable, 
I answer, so is all perfection ; ought therefore a 
moralist to recommand imperfections ? One excel- 
lency, however, of our Saviour's rules is, that they 
are either never mistaken, or never so mistaken as 
to do harm. I could feign a hundred cases, in 
which the literal application of the rule, " Of doing 
to others as we would that others should do unto 
us,'' might mislead us ; but I never yet met with 
the man who was actually misled by it. Notwith- 
standing that our Lord bade his followers " not to 
resist evil," and " to forgive the enemy who should 
trespass against them, not till seven times, but till 
seventy times seven," the Christian world has hither- 
to suffered little by too much placability or for- 
bearance. I would repeat once more, what has 
alreadv been twice remarked, that these rules were 
designed to regulate personal conduct from per- 
sonal motives, and for this purpose alone. 

I think that these observations will assist us 
greatly in placing our Saviours conduct, as a moral 
teacher, in a proper point of view ; especially when 
it is considered, that to deliver moral disquisitions 
was no part of his design — to teach morality at all 
was only a subordinate part of it ; his great busi- 
ness being to supply, what was more wanting than 
lessons of morality, stronger moral sanctions, and 
clearer assurances of a future judgment*. 



* Some appear to require a religious system, or, in the books 
which profess to deliver that system, minute directions for every cas« 



OP CHRISTIANITY. 



257 



The Parables of the New Testament are, many 
of them, such as would have done honour to any 
book in the world : I do not mean in style and dic- 
tion, but in the choice of the subjects, in the struc- 
ture of the narratives, in the aptness, propriety, and 
force of the circumstances woven into them ; and 
in some, as that of the Good Samaritan, the Pro- 
digal Son, the Pharisee and the Publican, in an 
union of pathos and simplicity which, in the best 
productions of human genius, is the fruit onU of 
a much-exercised, and well-cultivated judgment. 

The Lords Prayer, for a succession of solemn 
thoui^hts, for fixing the attention upon a few great 
points, for suitableness to every condition, for suf- 
ficiency, for conciseness, without obscurity, for the 
weight and real importance of its petitions, is with- 
out an 'equal or a rival. 

From whence did these come? Whence had this 
man his wisdom ? Was our Saviour, in fact, a well- 
instructed philosopher, whilst he is represented to 
us as an illiterate peasant? Or shall we say that 
some early Christians of taste and education com- 
posed these pieces, and ascribed them to Christ ? 
Beside ail other incredibihties ui this account, 1 an- 
swer, with Dr. Jortin, That they could not do it. — 
No speciniens of composition which the Christians 
of the first century have left us, authorise us to be- 



and occurrence that may arise. Tliis, say they, is necessary to rcndf r 
a revelation periect, especially one which has for its ohject the re- 
gulation of human conduct. Now, how prohx, and yet how in- 
complete and unavailing such un attempt must have been, is proved 
by one notable example : — " The HindoQ and Mu-^sulman religions 
are institutes of ci\il law, regulating thp minutest questions both of 
property, and of all questions which come under the cognizanix ol 
the magist rate. And to what lengtji details of this kiwd are nece*-; 
aarily carried, w hen once begun, may be ui^derstood from an anec- 
dote of the Mussulman code, which we have received rrom the most 
respt.cfable aut^iority, that not less than sevenUj-five thousand tradir 
tional precepts have been promulgat<^d " — UamiUon s TTartslaiwa 
cf the Heduya, or Guide- 

S 



258 



THE EVIDENCES 



lieve that they were equal to the task ; and how 
little qualified the Jews, the couiilrymen and com- 
paniens of Christ, were to assist him in the under- 
taking, maybe judoed of from the traditions and 
wa^itings of theirs which were the nearest to that age. 
The whole collection of the Talmud is one continued 
proof into what follies they fell whenever they left 
their Bible ; and how little capable they were of 
furnishing out such lessons as Christ delivered. 



But there is still another view in which our 
Lord's discourses deserve to be considered ; and 
that is, in their negative character, — not in what 
they did, but in what they did not, contain. Under 
this head the following reflections appear to me to< 
possess some weight. 

I. They exhibit no particular description of the 
invisible world. The future happiness of the good, 
and the misery of the bad, which is all we want tO; 
be assured of, is directly and positively affirmed, 
and is represented by metaphors and comparisons, 
which were plainly intended as metaphors and 
comparisons, and as nothing more. As to the rest, 
a solemn reserve is maintained. The question con- 
cerning the woman who had been married to seven 
brothers, " Whose shall she be in the resurrection ?" 
was of a nature calculated to have drawn from Christ 
a more circumstantial account of the state of the 
human species in their future existence. He cut 
short, however, the inquiry by an answer, which 
at once rebuked intruding curiosity, and w^as agree- 
able to the best apprehensions we are able to form 
upon the subject, viz. " That they who are ac- 
counted w^orthy of that resurrection, shall be as the 
angels o£ Godin Heaven." I lay a stress upon this 



OF CHRISTIAXTTT. 



259 



teerve, because it repels the suspicion of enthu- 
siasm ; for enthusiasm is wont to expatiate upon 
the condition of the departed, above ali other sub- 
jects ; and with a wild particulaiily. It is moreover 
a topic which is always listened to with greediness. 
The teacher, therefore, uhose principal purpose is 
to draw upon himself attention, is surq to be full of 
it. The Koran of Mahomet is half made up of it. 

ir. Our Lord enjoined no austerities. He not 
only enjoined none as absolute duties, but he re- 
commended none as carrying men to a higher de- 
gree of Divine favour. Place Christianity, in this 
respect, by the side of all institutions which have 
been founded in the fanaticism either of their au- 
thor or of his first followers ; or rather compare, 
in this respect, Christianity as it came from Ciirist, 
with the same religion after it fell into other hands ; 
with the extravagant merit v^ry soon ascribed to 
cehbacy, solitude, voluntary poverty; with the 
rigours of an ascetic, and tiie vows of a monastic 
life ; the hair shirt, the watchings, the midnight 
j)rayers, the obmutescence, the gloom and mortifi- 
cation of religious orders, and of diose who aspired 
to religious perfection. 

III. Our Saviour uttered no impassioned devo- 
tion. There was no heat in his piety, or in the lan- 
guage in which he expressed it; no vehement or 
rapturous ejaculations, no violent urgency, in his 
prayers. The Lord's Prayer is a model of calm 
devotion. His v/ ords in the garden are unatTected 
expressions of a deep, indeed, but sober piety. He 
never appears to have been worked up into any 
thing like that elation, or that emotion of spirits, 
which is occasionally observed in niost of those to 
whom the name of Enthusiast can in any degree be 
applied. I feel a respect for Methodists, because 

s 2 



^260 



THE EVIDENCES 



1 believe that there i^ to be found amongst them 
much sincere piety, and availing, though not al- 
ways well-informed Christianity; yet I never at- 
tended a meetino or theirs, but I came away witli 
the reflection, How different what I heard was from 
what I read ! I do not mean in doctrine, with 
w hich, at present, I have no concern, but in maa- 
ner ; how different from the calmness, the sobriety, 
the good sense, and, 1 may add, the strength and 
authority, of our Lord s discourses ! 

IV. It is very usual with the human mind to 
substitute forwardness and fervency in a particular 
cause, for the merit of general and regular mora- 
lity ; and it is natural and politic also in the leader 
of a sect or party, to encourage such a disposition 
in his followers. Christ did not overlook this turn 
of thought ; yet, though avowedly placing himself 
at the head of a new institution, he notices it only 
to condemn it. Not every one that saith unto me 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Hea- 
ven ; but he that doeththe will of my Father which 
is in Heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, 
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? 
and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy 
name done many wonderful works ! — and then will 
I profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart 
from me, that work iniquity So far was the 
Author of Christianity from courting the attach- 
ment of his followers by any sacrifice of principle, 
or by a condescension to the errors which even zeal 
in his service might have inspired ! This was a 
proof both of sincerity and judgment. 

V, Nor, fifthly, did he fall in with any of the 
deprdved fashions of the country, or with the na- 



* Matt, Tii. 21, 23, 



OF CHRISTIAXITY. 



tural bias of his own education. Bred up a Jew, 
under a religion extremely technical, in an age and 
amongst a people more tenacious of the ceremonies 
than of anv other part of that religion, he delivered 
an institution, containing less of ritual, and that 
more simple, than is to he found in any religion 
which ever prevailed amongst mankind. We have 
known, I do allow, examples of an enthusiasm which 
has swept away all external ordinances before it ; but 
this spirit certainly did not dictate our Saviour's con- 
duct, either in his treatment of the religion of his 
country, or in the formation of his own institution. 
In both, he displayed the soundness and njodera- 
tion of his judgment. He censured an overstrained 
scrupulousness, or perhaps an aliectation of scru- 
pulousness, about the Sabbath ; but how did he 
censure it? not by contemning or decrying the in- 
stitution itself, but by declaring that " tlie Sabbath 
was made for man, not man for the Sabbath that 
is to say, that the Sahbath was to be subordinate to 
its purpose, and that that purpose was the real 
good of those who were the subjects of the law. 
The same cqncerning the nicety of some of tiie Pha- 
risees, in paying tithes of the most trilling articles, 
accompanied with a neglect of justice, fidelilv, and 
mercy. He finds fault with them for misplacing 
their anxiety. He does not speak disrespectfully 
of the law of tithes, nor of their observance of it ; 
but he assigns to each class of duties its proper sta- 
tion in the scale of moral importance. All this 
might be expected perhaps from a well-instructed, 
cool, and judicious philosopher, but was not to be 
looked for from an illiterate Jew ; certainly not 
from an impetuous enthusiast. 

VI. Nothing could be more quibbling than were 
the comments and expositions of the Jewish doc- 
tors at that time; nothing so puerile as their dis-. 



THE EVIDENCES 



tinctions. Their evasion of the fifth command- 
ment, their exposition of the law of oaths, are spe- 
cimens of the bad taste in morals which then pre- 
vailed ; — whereas, in a num.erous collection of our 
Saviour's apophthegms, many of them referring to 
sundry precepts of the Jewish law, there is not to be 
found one example of sophistry, or of false subtilty, 
or of any thing approaching thereunto. 

VII. The national temper of the Jews was in- 
tolerant, narrow-minded, and excluding. In Jesus, 
on the contrary, whether we regard his lessons or 
his example, we see not only benevolence, but be- 
nevolence the most enlarged and comprehensive. 
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the very 
point of the story is, that the person relieved by 
him was the national and religious enemy of his be- 
nefactor. Our Lord declared the equity of the Di- 
vine administration, when he told the Jews fwhat, 
probably, they were surprised to hear) That 
many should come from the east and west, and 
should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
in the kino;dom of Heaven : but that the children of 
the kiuij^dom should be cast into utter darkness 
His reproof of the hasty zeal of his disciples, who 
would needs call down fire from Heaven to revencre 

o 

an affront put upon their Master, shows the lenity 
of his character and of his religion ; and his opi- 
nion of the manner in which the most unreasonable 
opponents ought to be treated, or at least of the 
manner in vv hich they ougfit not to be treated. The 
terms in wiiich his rebuke vvas conveyed deserve to 
be noticed: — "Ye know not what manner of 
spirit ye are of y." 



* Malt. Tiii. n. 
t Luke ix. 35. 



OF CHRISTIANIXr. 



• VIII. Lastly, Amongst the negative qualities of 
our religion, as it came out of the hands of its 
Founder and his apostles, we may reckon its com- 
plete abstractioQ from all views either of ecclesias- 
tical or civil policy ; or, to meet a language much 
in fashion with some men, from the politics either 
of priests or statesmen. Christ's declaration, that 
his kingdom was not of this world," recorded by 
St. John ; his evasion of the question, whether it 
was lawful or not to give tribute unto Cessar, men- 
tioned t)y the three other evangelists ; his reply to 
an application that was made to him, to interpose 
his authority in a question of property; " Mdt), 
who made me a ruler or a judge over you?" ascribed 
to him by St. Luke ; his declining to exercise the 
office of a criminal judge in the case of the woman 
taken in adultery, as related by John, are all intel- 
ligible significations of our Saviour's sentiments 
upon this head ; and with respect to politics^ in the 
usual sense of that word, or discussions concerning 
different forms of government, Christianity de- 
clines every question upon the subject. Whilst po- 
liticians are disputing about monarchies, aristo- 
cracies, and republics, the Gos{)el is ahke appli- 
cable, useful, and friendly to tbem all ; inasmuch 
as, 1st, It tends to make men virtuous, and as it is 
easier to govern good men than bad men under any 
constitution; as, 2dly, It states obedience to go- 
vernment, in ordinary cases, to be not merely a 
submission to force, but a duty of conscience ; as, 
3dly, It induces dispositions favourable to public 
tranquillity, a Christian's chief care being to pass 
quietly through this world to a better; as, 4thly, It 
prays for communities, and for the governors of 
communities, of whatever description or denomina- 
tion they be, with a solicitude and fervency propor- 
tioned to the influence which they possess upua 
human happiness. All whicb, iu my opinions is 



264 



THE EVIDENCES 



just as it should be. Had there been more to be 
found in Scripture of a political nature, or convert- 
ible to political purposes, the worst use would have 
been made of it, on whichever side it seemed to lie. 

When, therefore, we consider Christ as a moral 
teacher (remenibering that this was only a secon- 
dmy part of his office ; and that morality, by the 
nature of the subject, does not admit of discovery, 
properly so railed); — when we cpnsider, cither 
what he taught, or what he did not teach, either the 
substance or the manner of his instruction ; his pre- 
ference of solid to popular virtues, of a character 
which is commonly despised, to a character which 
is universally extolled ; his placing in our licentious 
vices the check in the right place, I'iz, upon the 
thoughts ; his collecting of human duty into well- 
devised rules, his repetition of these rules, the stress 
he laid upon them, especially in comparison with 
positive duties, and his thereby fixing the sentiments 
of his followers ; his exclusio n of all regard to re- 
putation in our devotion and alms, and, by a parity 
of reason, in our other virtues; — when we con- 
sider that his instructions were dtlivered in a form 
calculated for impression, the precise purpose in 
his situation to be consulted ; and that they were 
illustrated by parables, the choice and structure of 
whiich would have been admired in any composi- 
tion whatever ; — when we observe him free ivom 
the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, heat and vehe- 
mence in devotion, austerity in institutions, and a 
wild particularity in the description of a future 
state ; free also Irom the depravities of his age and 
country; without superstition amongst the most 
Riipersiiiious of men, yet not decrying positive dis- 
tinctions or external observances, but soberly re- 
calling them to the principle of their establishment, 
and to their jilace in the scale of human duties; 
\\.Uhout sophistry or triflings amidst teucljers re- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Q65 



tnarkable for nothing so much as frivolous subtil- 
ties and quibbling expositions; candid and liberal 
in his judgment of the rest of mankind, although be- 
longing to a people who affected a separate claim 
to Divine favour, and, in consequence of that opi- 
nion, prone to uncharitableness, partiality, and 
restriction ; — when we find in his religion no 
scheme of building up a hierarchy, or of ministering 
to the views of human governments ; — in a word, 
when we compare Christianity, as it cartie from its 
Author, either w4th other religions, or with itself in 
other hands, the most reluctant understanding will 
be mduced to acknowledge the probity, I think also 
the good sense, of those to whom it owes its origin ; 
and that some regard is due to the testimony of 
such men, when they declare their knowledge liiat 
the religion proceeded from God; and when they 
appeal, for the truth of their assertion, to miracles 
which they wrought, or which they saw. 

Perhaps the qualities which we observe iqthe re- 
ligion may be thought to prove something more. 
They would have been extraordinary, had the reli- 
gion come from any person ; but from the Person 
iVom whom it did come, they are exceedingly so. 
What was Jesus in external ap})earancep A 
Jewisli peasant, the son of a carpenter, living widi 
his father and mother in a remote provuice of Pa- 
lestine, until the time that he produced himself in 
his public character. He had no master to instruct 
or prompt him ; he had read no books, but the 
Morks of Moses and the Prophets ; he had visiied 
no polished cities ; he had received no lessons from 
Socrates or Plato, — notliing to form in him a taste 
or judgment different from that of the rest of i)is 
countrymen, and of persons of the same rank of 
life with himself Supposing it to be true, which 
it is not, that all his points of morality might be 
pici^ed out of Greek and Roman writings, they were 



£66 



THE EVIDEISCES 



\^'ritings which /fe had never seen. Supposing them 
to be no more than what some or other had taught 
in various times and places, he could not collect 
them together. 

Who were his coadjutors in the undertaking ? 
the persons into whose h-inds the religion came after 
his death? A few fishermen upon the Lake of Ti- 
berias, persons just as uneducated, and, for the 
purpose of framing rules of morality, as unpromis- 
ing as himself. Suppose the mission to be real, ail 
this is accounted for; the unsoitableness of the au- 
thors to the production, of the characters to the un- 
dertaking, no longer surprises us ; but without 
reality, it is very difficult to explain how such a 
system should proceed from such persons. Ciirist 
w-as not like any other carpenter ; the apostles were 
pot lixke any other lishermen. 



But the subject is not exhausted by those obser- 
vations. That portion of it which is most redu- 
cible to points of argument, has been stated, and, 
I trust, truly. There are, however, some topics of 
a more diffuse nature, which yet deserve to be pro- 
posed to the reader s attention. 

The Character of Christ h a part of the morality 
of the Gospel ; one strong observation upon which 
is, that neither as represented by his followers, nor 
as attacked by iiis enemies, is he charged with any 
personal vice. This remark is as old as Origen^ 

Though innumerable lies and caknimieshad been 
forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared 
to charge him with an intemperance*." Not a re- 
flection upon his moral character, not an imputa- 



* Or. Ep. Ccls. J. 3. numb 36, ed. Bencd= 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



tion of suspicion of any offence against purity and 
chastity, appears for five hundred years after his 
birth. This faultiessness is more peculiar than we 
are apt to imagine. Some stain pollutes the morals 
of the morality of almost every other teacher, and 
of every other law-giver Zeno the stoic, and 
Diogenes the cynic, fell into the foulest impuiiiies ; 
of which also Socrates himself was more than sus- 
pected. Solon forbade unnatural crimes to slaves. 
Lycurgus tolerated theft as a part of education. 
Plato recommended a community of women. Arisr 
totle maintained the general ri^ht of making war 
upon barbarians. The elder Cato was remarkable 
for the ill-usage of his slaves; the younger gave up 
the person of his wife. One loose principle is 
found in almost all the Pagan moralists ; is dis- 
tinctly, however, perceived m the writings of Plato, 
Xenophon, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus; and, that is, 
the allowing, and even the recommending lo their 
disciples, a compliance with the religion, and v\ith 
the religious riles of every country into \Ahich they 
came. In speaking of the founders of nevv insti- 
tutions, we cannot forget Mahomet. His licentious 
transgressions of his own licentious rules ; his 
abuse of the character w hich he assutned, and of the 
power which he liad acquired, for the purpose of 
personal and privileged indulgence ; his avowed 
claim of a special permission from Heaven of un- 
limited sensuality, is known to every reader, as it 
is confessed by every writer, of the Moslem story. 

Secondly, In the histories which are left us of 
Jesus Christ, although very short, and although 
dealing in narrative, and not in observation or pa- 
negyric, we perceive, beside the absence of every 



* Soc many instances collected by Grotius de Ver. in the notes 
ot his second book, p. 1 16, Pococjv's editiou. 



55g 



THE EVIDENCES 



appearance of vice, traces of devotion, humility, 
benignity, mildness, patience, prudence. I speak 
of traces of these qualities, because the qualities 
themselves are to be collected from incidents ; in- 
asmuch as the terms are never used of Christ in the 
Gospels, nor is any formal character of him drawn 
in any part of the New Testament. 

Thus we see the devoutness of his mind, in his fre- 
quent retirement to solitary prayer * ; in his habi- 
tual giving of thanks f; in his reference of the 
beauties and operations of nature to the bounty of 
Providence J ; in his earnest addresses to his Fa- 
ther, more particularly that short l>ut solemn one 
before the raising of Lazarus /rom the dead § ; and 
in the deep [>iety of his behaviour in the garden, on 
the last evening of his life|| ; his Jiumility, in his 
constant reproof of contentions for superiority ^ ; 
the bem 'ignitij afFectionateness of his temper, in 
his kindness to children ; in the tears which he 
shed over his falling country tt^ nnd upon the dealli 
of his friend ; in his noticing of the widow's 
mite nil ; in his parables of the Good Samaritan, of 
tiie ungrateful servant, and of the Pharisee and 
Publican, of which parai)les no one hut a ujan of 
Jiumanity could have been the author ; the mildness 
and lenity of !iis character is discovered in his re- 
buke of the forward zeal of his disciples at the Sa- 
ujaritan village ^^j ; in liis expostulation with Pi- 
late'^'**; in his prayer for his enemies at the mo- 
ment of his suliering ■\'\ f , which through it has been 
since very properly and frequently imitated, was 
then, I appreheiid, new. Whprudencc is discerned 



* M??tt xiv. 23. Luke ix. 28. ]Maft. xxxi. 36. 
^ Matt. Tci, Mfuk viii-fi- John vi- 23- Luke xxii. 17. 
: Mati. vi. '26—28. .i' Jni \i. 41, \\ ^laU. xwi. c6~- 4T- 

*l Mark i>i 33- Mark x. IG. ft L^^l^e xix. 4i . 

i§ John xL 35. MuiK xii. 4*2. till Imke ix. 55- 

John n< ttt .1*411 kc XX Mi. '11-. 



OF CHRlSTIANITy. 



where prudence is most wanted, in his conduct on 
trying occasions, and in answers to artful questions. 
Of these, the followiag are examples : — His with- 
drawing, in various instances, from the first symp- 
toms of tumult*, and with the express care, as ap- 
pears from Saint Matthew f , of carrying on his 
ministry in quietness ; his dechning of every species 
of interference with the civil atfairs of the country, 
which disposition is manifested by his behaviour in 
the case of the woman caught in adultery j, and in 
his repulse of the application which was made to 
him to interpose his decision about a disputed in- 
heritance his judicious, yet, as it should seem, 
unprepared answers, will be confessed in the case 
of the Roman tribute || ; in the difficulty concerning 
the interfering relations of a future state, as proposed 
to him in the instance of a woman who had married 
seven brethren ^[ ; and more especially, inhisieply 
to tliose who demanded from him an explanation 
of the authority by which he acted, which reply 
consisted in propotinding a question to then], si- 
tuated between the very difficulties into which tiiey 
were insiduously endeavouring to draw kim **. 

Our Saviour's lessons, besides what has already 
been remarked in them, touch, and that ofientimes 
by very affecting representations, upon some of tha 
most interesting topics of human duty, and of im- 
man meditation; upon the principles by which tiie 
decisions of the last day will be regulated |f ; upon 
the superior, or rather the supreme, importance of 
religion li II ; ypon penitence, by the most pressing 
calls, and the most encouraging invitations^^ ; upon 



* Matt xiv. 22. Luke v. 15, IC. Jglm v. 13- vi- 15. 

+ Cliap, xii. 19. ^ Johu viii. 1. § Luke xii, 14. 

ti Matt. xxii. 19. II Matt. xxii. 28. Chap. xXi. 28. et seq. 

-ft Chap, XXV. 31. et seq. 

Ijlj Mark viii. 56. Miitt vL 31—33. Luke xii 1(5. 
Luive XV, 



/ 



^70 THE EVIDENCES 

self - denial f , watchfulness J, placability confi- 
dence in God||, the value of spiritual, ihat is, of 
mental worship '^T, the necessity of moral obedience, 
and the directing of that obedience to the spirit 
and principle of the law, instead of seeking for eva- 
sions in a technical construction of its terms 

If we extend our argument to other parts of the 
New Testament^ we may offer, as amongst the 
best and shortest rules of life (or which is the same 
thing, descriptions of virtue that have ever been 
delivered) the following passages: — 

*' Pure religion, and undefiied before God and 
the Father, is this : — To visit the fatherless and 
widows in their affliction, and to keep himself un- 
spotted from the svorld ff ." 

Now the end of the commandment is charity, 
out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and 
of faidi unfeigned 

" For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, 
hath appeared io all men, teaching us, that denying 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live so- 
berly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
M-orid ill." 

Enumerations of virtues and vices, and those suf- 
ficiently accurate, and unquestionably just, are 
given by Saint Paul to his converts in three several 
epistles 

The relative duties of husbands and wives, of 
parents and children, of masters and servants, of 



i Matt V. 29. 

t Mark xiii. 3T. Matt. xxiv. 42. "xxv. 13. 

^ Luke xvii. 4. Matt, xviii- 33. et scq. 

II Matt. vi. 25—30. «[ John iv. 23, 24. 

Matt. V. 21. +f James i. 27. 

5^ ) Tim. i.5. |||| Tit. ii. 11, 12' 

Tl! Gal. V. 19. Col. iii. 12. I Cor. xiii. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Christian teachers and their flocks, of governors and 
their subjects, are set forth by the same writer % 
not indeed with the copiousness, the detail, or the 
distinctness of a morahst, who should, in these days, 
sit down to write chapters upon the subject, but 
with the leading rules and principles in each ; and, 
above all, with truth, and with authority. • 

Lastly, The whole volume of the New Testament 
is replete with piety ; with, what were almost un- 
known to Heathen mov-dXi^is, devotionai virtues,' 
the most profound veneration of the Deity, and ha- 
bitual sense of his bounty and protection, a firm 
confidence in the final results of his counsels and 
dispensations, a disposition to resort upon all occa- 
sions to his mercy, for the supply of human wants, 
-for assistance in danger, for relief from pain, for 
pardon of sin. 



* Eph V 33. vi, J, 5, 2 Cor. \i. 6. 7. Reii). xiii. 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER nr. 

The Candour of the Writers of the New Testament, 

I MAKE this candour to consist in the putting 
down many passages, and noticing many circum- 
stances, which no writer whatever was likely to have 
forged ; and which no writer would have chosen to 
appear in his book, who had been careful to present 
the story in the most unexceptionable form, or who 
had thought himself at liberty to carve and mould 
the particulars of that story, according to his choice, 
or according to his judgment of the effect. 

A strong and well-known example of the fairness 
of the evangelists, offers itself in their account of 
Christ's resurrection, namel}?-, in their unanimously 
stating, that after he was risen, he appeared to his 
disciples alone. I do not mean that they have used 
the exclusive vvord alone ; but that all the instances 
which they have recorded of his appearance, are 
instances of appearance to his disciples ; that their 
reasoning upon it, and allusions to it, are confined 
to this supposition ; and that, by one of them, Peter 
is made to say, " Him God raised up the third day, 
and showed him openly, not to all the people, but 
to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who 
did eat and drink with him after he rose from the 
dead The commonest understanding must have 
perceived that the history ot the resurrection would 
have come with more advantage, if they had re- 
lated that Jesus appeared, after he was risen, to 



OF CHRISTIA^' itY. 



his foes as well as his friends, to the scribes and 
Ptiarisees, the Jewish council, and the Roman ^yo- 
vernor ; or even if they had asserted the public 
appearance of Christ in general unquaUfied terms, 
without noticing, as they have done, the presence 
of his disciples upon each occasion, and noticing it 
in such a manner as to lead their readers to sup- 
pose that none but disciples were present. They 
<:ould have represented it one way as well as the 
other ; — and if their point had been to have the re- 
ligion believed, whether true or false ; if they had 
fabricated the story ab initio ; or if tliey had been 
disposed either to have delivered their testimony 
as witnesses, or to have worked up their materials 
and information as historians, in such a manner as 
to render their narrative as specious and unobjec- 
tionable as they could ; — in a word, if tbey had 
thought of any thing but of the truth of the case, 
as they understood and believed it, they would, in 
their account of Christ's several appearances after 
his resurrection, at least have omitted this restric- 
tion. At this distance of time, the account as we^ 
Jiave it, is perhaps more credible than it would have 
been the other way; because this manifestation of 
the historians' candour is of more advantage to their 
testimony, than the difference in the circumstances 
of the account would have been to the nature of 
the evidence. But this is an effect which the evan- 
gelists would not foresee; and I think that it was 
by no means the case at the time when the books 
were composed. 

Mr. Gibbon has argued for the genuineness of the 
Koran, from the confessions whicli it contains, to the 
apparent disadvantage of the Mahometan cause 
1 he same defence vindicates the genuineness of our 
Gospels, and without prejudice to the cause at all. 



* Vol. ix. e. 50, note 96. 
T 



THE EVIDENCES 



_^ There are some other instances in which the 
evangehsts honestly relate what, they must have 
perceived, would* make against them. 

Of this kind is John the Baptist's message, pre- 
served by Saint Matthew (chap. xi. 2.) and Saint 
Luke (ch. vii. 18.) ; "Now when John had heard 
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of 
his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that 
should come, or look we for another?" To confess, 
still more to state, that John the Baptist had his- 
doubts concerning the character of Jesus, could 
not but afford a handle to cavil and objection. But 
truth, like honebty, neglects appearances. The 
same observation, perhaps, holds concerning the 
apostacy of Judas *. 

John vi. 66. From that time many of his dis- 
ciples went back, and walked no more with him/" 
Was it the part of a writer, who dwelt in suppres- 
sion and disguise, to put down this anecdote? 
Or this which Matthew has preserved (xiii. 58.)^ 
He did not many mighty works there, because of 
their unbelief." 

Again^ in the same evangelist (verse 17, 18.)^ 
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or 
the prophets ; I am. not come to destroy, but to ful- 
fil : for verily, I say unto you, till Heaven and earth 



■* I had once placed amongst tliese examples of fair euiicessioii, 
the remarkaLle words of Saint Matiiaew, in his accoimt of Christ s 
appearance upon the Galilean mountain : " And uhcn they saw 
iiim, they worshipped him ; hut some doubted I have since, how- 
ever, been convinced, by what is observed concerning- this passage f 
in ]3r. TovNnsjieiKt's disconrse upon the resurre«;tio]i, that the trans- 
action, as related by Saint Matthew, was really this: "Christ ap- 
peared first at a distance ; the greater part of the conjpany, the mo- 
ment they saw him, worshipped; but some, as yet, i, e- upon the first 
dis.tant view of his person, doubled; where d})on Christ came vjj to 
them, and spake to them," Sec ; that the donbt, therefore, was a 
donbt only at first, for a moment, and upon his being seen at a dis- 
tance, and was afterwards dispelled by his nearer approach, aud by 
his eiiterin^^ into conversation with thcui- 

^- Ciiaj). xxviii. IT. i ?as:c: 17T. 



OF CHPaSTIANITY. £>75 

pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in nowise pass 
from the law till all be fulfilled." At the time the 
Gospels were written, the apparent tendency of 
Christ's mission was to diminish the authority of 
the Mosaic code ; and it was so considered by the 
Jews themselves. It is very improbable, therefore, 
that, without the constraint of truth, Mattliew should 
have ascribed a saying to Cin^ist, v.hich, primo in- 
tuitu, militated with the judgment of the age in 
which his Gospel was written. Marcion thought 
this text so objectionable, that he altered the words, 
so as to invert the sense 

Once more (Acts xxv. 19-) They brought none 
accusation against him of such things as I supposed, 
but had certain questions against him of their own 
superstition, and of one Jesus who was dead, whom 
Paul affirmed to be aUve." Nothing could be more 
in character of a Roman governor than these words. 
But that is not precisely the point I am concerned 
Avith. A mere panegyrist, or a dishonest narrator, 
would not have represented his cause, or have made 
a great magistrate represent it in this manner, i. e. 
in terms not a little disparaging, and bespeaking on 
his part much unconcern and indifference about 
the matter. The same observation may be repeat- 
ed of the speech which is ascribed to Gallio (Acts 
xviii. 15.) : If it be a question of words and 
names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be 
no judge of such matters." 

Lastly, Where do we discern a stronger mark of 
candour, or less disposition to extol and magnify, 
than in the conclusion of the same history ? in which 
the evangelist, after relating that Paul, on his first 
arrival at Rome, preached to the Jews from morn- 
ing until evening, adds, — " And some believed 



J^ard. vol. xv p. 422* 
T 2 



Q7S 



THE EVIDENCES 



the things which were spoken, and some believed 
not." 

The following, I think, are passages which were 
very unlikely to have presented themselves to the 
mind of a tort^er or fabulist. 

Matt. xxi. 21. "Jesus answered and said unto 
them, Verily, I say unto you, If ye have faith, and 
doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done 
unto the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Ee thou removed, and be thou cast into 
the sea, it shall be done; all things whatsoever ye 
shall ask in prayer, believing, it shall be done*." 
It appears to me very improbable that these words 
should have been put into Christs mouth, if he had 
not actually spoken them. The term " faith," as 
here used, is peihaps rightly interpreted of confi- 
dence in that internal notice, by which the apostles 
were admonished of their power to perform any 
particular miracle. And this exposition renders 
the sense of the text more easy. But the words, 
undoubtedly, in their obvious construction, carry 
with them a difficulty which no writer would have 
brought upon himself officiously. 

Luke ix. 5<). "And he said unto another. Fol- 
low me : but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go 
and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the 
dead bury their dead, but go ihou and preach the 
kingdom of Godf.'' This answer, though very ex- 
pressive of the transcendent importance of religious 
concerns, was apparently harsh and repulsive ; and 
such as would not have been made for Christ, if he 
had not really used it. At least, some other in- 
stance would have been chosen. 

The following passage I, for the same reason, 
think impossible to have been the production of 



* See also x\ii, 20. Luke xvii 6. 
t St'C also Matl, y'm. 21. ' - 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



277 



artifice, or of a cold forgery : — But I say unto 
you, that whosoever is angry with his brother with- 
out a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment ? 
and whosoever shall say to his brotlier Racca, shall 
be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall 
sa3^,Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-lire" (Ge- 
bennae.) Matt. v. 22. It is emphatic, cogent, and 
well calculated for the purpose of impression ; but 
is inconsistent with the supposition of art or wari^ 
ness on the part of the relater. 

The short reply of our Lord to Mary Magdalen, 
after his resurrection (John xx. ^' Touch me 
not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father," in 
iny opinion, must have been founded in a reference 
or allusion to some prior conversation ; for the want 
of knowing which, his meaning is hidden from us. 
This very obscurity, however, is a proof of genuine- 
ness. No one would have forged such an answer. 

John vi. The whole of the conversation recorded 
in this chapter, is, in the highest degree, unlikely 
to be fabricated, especially the part of our Saviour's 
reply between the liftieth and lifty-eighth verse. I 
need only put down the first sentence: — ^**Iam 
the living bread which came down from Heaven : 
if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ; 
and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which 
I will give for the life of the world." Without 
calling in question the expositions that have been 
given of this passage, w^e may be permitted to say, 
that it labonrs under an obscurity, in which it is 
impossible to believe that any one who made 
speeches for the persons of his narrative, would 
have voluntarily involved them. That this dis- 
course was obscure, even at the time, is confessed 
by the writer who has preserved it, w'hen he tells us 
at the conclusion, that many of our Lords dis- 
ciples, when they had heard this, said, " This is a 
hard saying ; who can bear it 



tllE EVIDENCES 



Christ's taking a young child, and placing it in 
the midst of his contentious disciples (Matt, xviii. 
2.) though as decisive a proof as any could be of 
the benignity of his temper, and very expressive of 
the character of the religion which he wished to in- 
culcate, was not by any means an obvious thought. 
Nor am I acquainted with any thing in any ancient 
writing which resembles it. 

The account of the institution of the Eucharist 
bears strong internal marks of genuineness. If it 
had been feigned, it would have been more full ; it 
would have come nearer to the actual mode of ce- 
lebrating the rite, as that mode obtained very early 
in Christian churches, and it would have been more 
formal than it is. In the forged piece, called the 
Apostohc Constitutions, the apostles are made to 
enjoin many parts of the ritual which was in use in 
the second and third centuries, with as much parti- 
cularity as a modern rubric could have done ; — 
whereas, in the history of the Lords Supper, as 
we read it in Saint Matthew's Gospel, there is not 
so much as the command to repeat it. This, 
surely, looks like undesignedness. I think, also, 
that the difficulty arising from the conciseness of 
Christ's expression," This is my body," would have 
been avoided in a made-up story. I allow that 
the explication of these words, given by Protestants, 
is satisfactory ; but it is deduced from a diligent 
comparison of the wwds in question with forms of 
expression used in Scripture,, and especially by 
Christ, upon other occasions. No writer would 
arbitrarily and unnecessarily have thus cast in his 
readers way a difficult}^, which, to say the least, it 
required research and erudition to clear up. 

Now it ought to be observed, that the argument 
which is built upon these examples, extends both 
to the authenticity of the books and to the truth of 
the narrative j for it is improbable that the forger of 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



279 



a history in the name of another should have in- 
serted such passages into it ; and it is improbabie 
also that the persons whose names the books bear 
should have fabricated such passages, or even 
have allowed them a place in their work, if they 
had not believed them to express the truth. 

The following observation, therefore, of Dr. 
Lardner, the most candid of ail advocates, and the 
most cautious of all enquirers, seems to be well 
founded : — " Christians are induced to believe 
the writers of the Gospel, by observing the evidences 
of piety and probity that appear in their writings, 
in which there is no deceit, or artifice, or cunning, 
or design." " No remarks," as Dr. Beattie hath 
properly said, are thrown in, to anticipate objec- 
tions, — nothing of that caution, which never fails 
to distinguish the testimony of those who are con- 
scious of imposture, — no endeavour to reconcile 
the readers mind to what may be extraordinary in 
the narrative." 

I beg leave to cite also another author *j \vho. 
has well expressed the reflection which the ex- 
amples now brought forward were intended to sug- 
gest. It doth not appear that ever it came into 
the mind of these writers to consider how this or 
the other action would appear to mankind, or what 
objections might be raised upon them : but with- 
out at all attending to this, they lay the facts before 
you, at no pains to think whether they would ap- 
pear credible or not. If the reader will not believ;^ 
their testimony, there is no help for it : they tell 
the truth, and attend to nothing else. Surety, this 
looks Yike sincerity ; and that they published no- 
thing to the w^orld but what they believed them- 
selves." 



" Ducbal, p 1)7, 9S, 



^80 



THE EVIDENCE^ 



As no improper supplement to this chapter, I 
crave a phice here for observing the extreme natu- 
rahiess of some of the things related in the New 
Testament. 

Mark ix. 24. Jesus said unto him, If thou 
canst believe, all things are possible to him that be- 
lieve th ; and straightway the father of the child 
cried out, and said with tears. Lord, I believe ; help 
thou mine unbelief." This struggle in the father's 
heart, between solicitude for the preservation of his 
child, and a kind of involuntary distrust of Christ's 
power to heal him, is here ex|)ressed with an air 
of reality, wiiich could hardly be counterfeited. 

Again (Matt, xxi.p.) the eagerness of the people 
to introduce Christ into Jerusalem, and their de* 
mand, a short time afterwards, of his crucifixion, 
when he did not turn out w hat they expected him 
to be, so far from affording matter of objection, re- 
presents popular favour, in exact agreement with 
nature and with experience, as the Hux and reflux 
of a wave. 

The rulers and Pharisees rejecting Christ, whilst 
many of the common people received him, was the 
effect which, in the then state of Jewish prejudices^ 
I should have expected ; and the reason with which 
they, who rejected Christ's mission, kept themselves 
in countenance, and with which also they answered 
the argunjents of those who favoured it, is precisely 
the reason which such men usually give : — Have 
any of the scribes or Pharisees believed on him ?" — 
John vii. 4S. 

In our Lords conversation at the well (John 
iv. Christ had surprized the Samaritan wo- 
man, with an allusion to a single particular in 
her domestic situation, " Thou hast had five hus- 
bands ; and he whom thou now^ hast is not thy 
husband.'^ — The woman, soon after this, rar\ 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



back to the city, and called out to her neighbours? 

Come, see a man which told me all things that 
ever I did." This exaggeration appears tp me very 
natural, especially in the hurried state of spirits 
into which the woman may be supposed to have 
been thrown. 

The lawyers subtilty in running a distinction 
upon the word neighbour^ in the precept " Thou 
siialt love thy neighbour as thyself," was no less na- 
tural than our Saviours answer was decisive and 
satisfactory (Luke x. 29-) — The lawyer of the New 
Testament, it must be observed, was a Jewish 
divine. 

The behaviour of Gallio (Acts xviii. 12 — 17) 
and of Festus (xxv. ]8, I9.) have been observed 
upon already. 

^ The consistency of Saint Paul's character through- 
out the whole of his history (viz. The warmth and 
activity of his zeal, first against and then for Chris- 
tianity) carries widi it very mucli of the appearance 
of truth. 

There are also some Properties, as they may be 
called, observable in the Gospels; that is, circum- 
stances separately suiting with the situation, charac- 
ter, and intention of their respective authors. 

Saint Matthew, who was an inhabitant of Galilee, 
and did not join Christ s society until some time 
after Christ had come into Galilee to preach, has 
given us very little of his history prior to that period. 
Saint John, who had been converted before, and 
who wrote to supply omissions in the other Gospels, 
relates some remarkable particulars, which had 
taken place before Christ left Judea to go into 
Galilee ^ 

St. Matthew (xv. 1 ,) has recorded the cavil of the 



* Hartley's Ob&eivationS; vqI. ii. p. 103. 



§82 



TH£ EVIDENCES 



Pharisees against the disciples of Jesus, for eating 
*' with unclean hands." St, Mark has also (vii. ].) 
recorded the same transaction (taken probably 
fronri St. Matthew) but with this addition, ''For the 
Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their 
hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of the 
elders ; and when they come from the market, ex- 
cept they wash they eat not ; and many other 
things there be which they have received to hold, 
as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, 
and of tables." ^ — Now Saint Matthew was not only 
a Jew himself, but it is evident, from the whole 
structure of his Gospel, especially from his nu- 
merous references to the Old Testament, that he 
xvrote for Jewish readers. The above explanation, 
therefore, in him, would have been unnatural, as 
BOt being wanted by the readers whom he address- 
ed ; but in j\iark, who, whatever use he might 
make of Matthew's Gospel, intended his own nar- 
rative for a general circulation, and who himself 
travelled to distant countries in the service of the 
religion, it was properly added. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. ^^3' 



CHAPTER IV. 

Identity of Christ's Character. 

TThe argument expressed by this title, I apply 
principally to the comparison of the three first 
Gospels with that of Saint John. It is known to 
every reader of Scripture, that the passages of 
Christ's history, preserved by Saint John, are, ex- 
cept his passion and resurrection, for the most part, 
different from those which are delivered by the other 
evangelists; and I think the ancient account of this 
difference to be the true one, "oiz. That Saint John 
wrote ajter the rest, and to supply what he thou^^ht 
omissions in their narratives, of which the princi- 
pal were our Saviour's conferences with the Jews of 
Jerusalem, and his discourses to his apostles at his 
last supper : but what I observe in the comparison 
of these several accounts is, That altliough actions 
and discourses are ascribed to Christ by St. John, 
in general different from Mhat are given to him by 
the other evangelists,— yet, under this diversity, there 
is a similitude of manner^ which indicates that the 
actions proceeded from the same person. I should 
have laid little stress upon a repetition of action 
substantially alike, or of discourses containing many 
of the same expressions, because that is a species 
of resemblance which would either belong to a 
true history, or might easily be imitated in a false 
one. Nor do I deny that a dramatic writer is able 
to sustain propriety and distinction of character 
through a great variety of separate incidents and 
situations ; but the evang lists were not dramatic 
writers, — nor possessed the talents of drainatic 



TilE EVIDENCES 

writers ; nor will it, I believe, be suspected that 
they studied umfonrnty of character, or ever thought 
of any such thing, in the Person who was the sub- 
ject of their histories. Such uniformity, if it exist, 
is on their part casual ; and if there be, as I con- 
tend there is, a perceptible resemblance of nianner 
in passages and between discourses, which are in 
themselves extremely distinct, and are delivered by 
historians waiting without any intimation of or re- 
ference to one another, it affords a just presump- 
tion that these are w^iat they profess to be, the ac- 
tions and discourses of the same real person ; that 
the evangelists wrote from fact, and not from ima- 
gination. 

The article in which I find this agreement most 
strong, is in our Saviour's mode of teaching ; and 
in that particular property of it which consists in 
his drawing of his doctrine from the occasion ; or, 
^vhich is nearly the sam.e thing, raising reflections 
from the objects and incidents before him, or turn- 
ing a particular discourse then passing, into an op- 
portunity of general instruction. 

It will be my business to point out this manner 
in the first three evangelists ; and then to enquire 
Whether it do not appear also, in several examples 
of Christ's discourses, preserved by St. John? 

The reader will observe, in the following quota- 
tions, that the Italic contains the reflection, — the 
common letter, the incident or occasion from which 
it springs. 

Alatt. xii, 47, ^0. Then they said unto him, 
Behold, thy m.othcr and thy brethren stand without, 
desiring to speak with thee ; but he answered, and 
said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? — 
and who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth 
his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my 
xoother and my brethren : for whosoei'cr shall do 



OF CHRISTIAN ITT. 285 

the will of my Father, which is in Heaven^ the same 
is my brother, and sister, and mother.'' 

Matt. xvi. 5. " And when his disciples were come 
to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread ; 
then Jesus said unto tliem, Take heed, and bexvare 
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saddu- 
cees ; — and they reasoned among themselves, say- 
ing, Is it because we have taken no bread ? How 
is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not 
to you concerning l)read, that ye should beware of 
the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees ? 
Then understood they hoxo that he bade them not 
bexvare of the leaven of bread, but of the doc- 
I'Ri NE of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.'' 

Matt. XV. 1, 2, 10, 11, 17—20. " Then came to 
Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jeru- 
salem, saying Why do thy disciples transgress the 
traditions of the elders, — for they wash not their 
hands when they eat bread ? — And he called the 
multitude, and said unto them, Hear and under- 
stand : — Not that which goeth into the mouth 
defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the 
mouth, — this defileth a man. Then answered 
Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this para- 
ble. And Jesus said, Are ye also without under- 
standing ? Do ye not understand, that whatsoever 
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is 
cast out into the draught? — but those things which 
proceed out of the mouth come forth from tlie 
heart, and they defile the man ; for out of the 
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
fornications, thefts, false zvitness, blasphemies ; — 
these are the things which defile a man ; but to 
i:at with unwashen hands, defileth not 
A MAN." Our Saviour, upon this occasion, expa- 
tiates rather more at large than usual, and his dis- 
course also is more divided ; but the concluding 
sentence brink's back the whole train of thouj^ht to 



I 



285 



^ THE EVIDENCES 



the incident in the first verse, viz. The objurgatory 
question of the Pharisees, and renders it evident 
that the whole sprang from that circumstance. 

Mark X, 13, 14, J 5. " And they brought young 
children to him, that he should touch them ; and his 
disciples rebuked those that brought them ; but 
when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased; and 
said unto them, Suffer the little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the 
kingdom of God Verilij^ I sai/ unto you, zvhoso- 
ever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a 
little childy he shall not enter therein'' 

Mark i. 16, I7. " Now, as he walked by the 
Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his bro- 
ther, casting a net into the sea, for they were 
lishers ; and Jesus said unto them, Come ye after 
7ne, and I xvill make you fishers of men,'" 

Luke xi. 27. " And it came to pass as he spake 
these things, a certain woman of the company lifted 
up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the 
womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast 
sucked ; but he said Yea, rather blessed are they 
that hear the word of God, and keep it'' 

Luke xiii. 1 — 3. " There were present at that 
season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose 
blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices ; and 
Jesus answering, said unto them. Suppose ye that 
these Galileans were sinners above all the Gali- 
leans, because they suffered such things ? I tell you 
Nay-, but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish'' 

Luke xiv. 15. And Avhen one of them that 
sat at meat with him heard these things, he said 
unto him. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the 
kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A cer- 
tain man made a great supper, and bade manyT 
&c. The parable is rather too long for insertion, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



287 



but affords a striking instance of Christ's manner 
of raising a discourse from the occasion. Observe 
also, in the same chapter, two other examples of 
advice, drawn from the circumstances of the enter- 
tainment and the behaviour of the guests. 

We shall now see how this manner discovers it- 
self in Saint Johns history of Christ, 

John vi, 25. And when they had found him 
on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, 
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered 
tlieln, and said Verily, I say unto you, ye seek me 
not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye 
did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not 
for the meat ivhich perisheth, hut for that meat 
xvh'ich endureth unto everlasting life, which the 
Son of man shall give unto youT 

Jolm iv. 12. Art thou greater than our father 
Abraham, who gave us the well, and drank thereof 
himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus 
answered, and said unto her (the woman of Sama- 
ria) Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst 
again ; but whosoever drinketh of the water that 1 
shall give him^ shall never thirst ; but the water 
that I shall give him shall be in him a xvell of 
xvater, spri?igi?ig up into everlasting life'J^ 

John iv. 31. " In the mean while his disciples 
prayed him, saying Master, eat ; — but he said unto 
them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. — 
Therefore, said the disciples one to another. Hath 
any man brought him ought to eat ? Jesus saith 
unto them, My meat is to do thexvill of Him that 
sent me, and to finish his xvork.'' 

John ix. 1 — 5. ''And as Jesus passed by, he 
saw a man which was blind from his birth ; and his 
disciples asked him, saying, Wlio did sin, this man 
or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus an- 
swered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his pa- 
vents ; but that the works of God should be made 



288 



THE EVIDENCES 



manifest in him. I must work the works of Him 
that sefit one, while it is daif ; the ?iight cometh, 
when no man can xvork. As long as I am in the 
world, I am the light of the world.'' 

John ix. 35 — 40. Jesus heard that they had 
cast him (the blind man before mentioned) out ; and 
when he had found him, he said unto him, Dosl 
thou believe on the Son of God ? And he answer- 
ed, and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe 
on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both 
seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And 
he said, Lord, I believe ; and worshipped him. And 
Jesus said, ^]or judgment I am come into this world, 
that they zvhich see not might see ; and that they 
which see, might he made blinds 

All that the reader has now to do, is to compare 
the series of examples taken froai Saint John, witii 
the series of examples taken from the other evan- 
gelists, and to judge whether there be not a visible 
agreement of manner between them. In the above 
^juoted passages, the occasion is stated, as well as 
the reflection. They seem, therefore, the most pro- 
per for the purpose of our argument. A large, 
however, and curious collection has been made by 
different wi iters* of instances, in which it is ex- 
tremely probable that Christ spoke in allusion to 
some object, or some occasion then before him^ 
though the mention of the occasion, or of the object, 
be omitted in the history. I only observe, that these 
instances are common to Saint Johns Gospel with 
the other three. 

I conclude this article by remarking, That no- 
thing of this manner is perceptible in the speeches 
recorded in the Acts, or in any other but those 
which are attributed to Christ ; and that in truth it 



* Newton on Danie!, p. 148, note «. Justin Dis. p. 21'3. Bialiop 
Law's Life of Ciiiisi- i 



CHRISTIANlTf. 



289 



Vas a vdry unlikely manner for a forger or fabulist 
to attempt ; and a manner very difficult for any 
writer to execute, if he had to supply all the mate- 
rials, both the incidents arid the observations upon 
them, out of his own head, A forger or a fabulist 
would have made for Christ discourses exhorting to 
virtue and dissuading from vice in general terms. 
It vt^ould never have entered into the thoughts of 
either, to have crowded together such a number of 
allusions to time, place, and other little circum- 
stances, as occur, for instance, in the Sermon on 
the Mount, and vt^hich nothing but the actual pre- 
sence of the objects could have suggested *. 

II. There appears to me to exist an affinity be- 
tween the history of Christ's placing a little child 
in the midst of his disciples, as related by the three 
first evangelists f, and the history of Christ's wash- 
ing his disciples' feet, as given by Saint John J. In 
the stories themselves there is no resemblance : 
but the affinity which I would point out, consists 
in these two articles : — First, That both stories de- 
note the emulation which prevailed amongst Christ's 
disciples, and his own care and desire to correct 
it: — the moral of both is the same. Secondly, 
That both stories are specimens of the same man- 
ner of teaching, viz. By action : a mode of emble- 
matic instruction extremely peculiar, and, in these 
passages, ascribed we see to our Saviour by the 
three first evangelists, and by St. Joim, in instances 
totally unlike, and without the smallest suspicion 
of their borrowing from each other. 

III. A singtrlairity in Christ s language, whiclr 
runs through all the evangelists, and which is found 



* See Bishop Law's Life of Christ. 

i Matt. x\iii.- L; ^^lark ix. 33 ; Lxike ix. 46. j John m'^'t 

V 



490 THE EVIDENCES 

in those discourses of Saint John that have nothing 
similar to them in the other Gospels, is the appel- 
lation of The Son of Man ; and it is in all the 
evangelists found under the peculiar circumstance 
of being applied by Christ to himself, but of never 
being used of him, or towards him, by any other 
person. It occurs seventeen times in Matthews 
Gospel, tv\elve times in Mark's, twenty-one times 
in Luke's, and eleven times in John's, and always 
with this restriction. 

IV. A point of agreement in the conduct of 
Christ, as represented by his different historians, is 
that of his withdrawing himself out of the way 
whenever the behaviour of the multitude indicated 
a disposition to tumult. 

Matt. xiv. 22. " And straightway Jesus con- 
strained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go 
before him unto the other side, while he sent the 
multitude away ; and when be had sent the multi- 
tude away, he went up into a mountain apart to 
pray." 

Luke V. 15, 16. "But so much the more went 
there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes 
came together to hear, and to be healed by him of 
their infirmities; and he withdrew himself into the 
wilderness, and prayed." 

With these quotations compare the following from 
Saint John : ~ 

Chap. V. 1 3. " And he that was healed, wist not 
who it was ; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, 
a multitude being in that place."' 

Chap. vi. 15. " When Jesus therefore perceived 
that they would come and take him by force, to 
make him a king, he departed again into a moun- 
tain himself alone." 

In this last instance, Saint John gives the motive 
of Christ's conduct, which is left unexplained by 



OF CHRISTIANITY. £91 

the Other evangeb'sts, who have related the conduct 
itself. 

V. Another, and a more singular circumstance 
in Christ's ministry, was the reserve which, for 
some time, and upon some occasions at least, he 
used in declaring his own character, and his leaving 
it to be collected from his works rather than his pro- 
fessions Just reasons for this reserve have been 
assigned ^ ; but it is not what one would have ex- 
pected. We meet with it in Matthew's Gospel 
(xvi. ^20.) : — " Then charged he his disciples, that 
they should tell no man that he was Jesus the 
Christ." Again, and upon a different occasion, in 
Mark's (iii. 11.) : — "And unclean spirits, when 
they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, say- 
ing Thou art the Son of God ; and he straitly 
charged them that they should not make him 
known." Another instance, similar to this last, is 
recorded by Saint Luke (iv. 41.) What we thus 
find in the three evangelists, appears also in a pas- 
sage of Saint John (x. 24, 37.) : — " Then came the 
Jews round about him, and said unto him, How 
long dost thou make us to doubt ? If thou be the 
Ciirist, tell us plainly." The occasion here was dif- 
ferent from any of the rest ; and it was indirect. 
We only discover Christ's conduct through the up- 
braidings of his adversaries ; but all this strength- 
ens the argument. I had rather at any time sur- 
prize a coincidence in some oblique allusion, than 
read it in broad assertions. 

VL In our Lord's commerce with his disciples, 
one very observable particular is the difficulty which 
they found in understanding him w^hen he spoke to 
them of the future part of his history, especially of 



* See Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. 
V 2 



^9% 



THE EVIDENCES 



what related to his passion or resurrection: This 
difficulty produced, as was natural, a wish in them 
to ask for further explanation ; from which, how- 
ever, they appear sometimes to have been kept 
back, by the fear of giving offence. All these cir- 
cumstances are distinctly noticed bv Mark and 
Luke, upon the occasion of his informing them 
(probably for the first time) that the Son of man 
should be delivered into the hands of men. " They 
understood not," the evangelist tells us, ^' this saying ; 
and it was hid from them, that they perceived it 
not; and they feared to ask him of that saying.'* 
Luke ix. 45. ; Mark ix. 32. In Saint John's Gos- 
pel we have, upon a different occasion, and in a 
different instance, the same difficulty of apprehen- 
sion, the same curiosity, and the same restraint:-—* 
A little while and ye shall not see me ; and again, 
a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to 
the Father. Then said some of his disciples among 
themselves. What is this that he saith unto us? A: 
little while, and ye shall not see me ; and again, a 
little while, and ye shall see me ; and, Because I go 
to the Father ? They said, therefore, What is this 
that he saith, A little while ? We cannot tell what 
he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous 
to ask him, and said unto them,"&c. — John xvi. 
16, et seq. 

VIL The meekness of Christ durino; his last suf- 
ferings, which is conspicuous in the narratives of 
the first three evangelists, is preserved in that of 
Saint John under separate examples. The answer 
given by him in Saint John when the high-priest 
asked him of his disciples and his doctrine: "I 
spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in the 
synagogue and in the temple, whither the Jews al- 
ways resort ; and in secret have I said nothing, — 



* Chap.xviii. 20, SL 



OF CHRISTTANITT. 



£93 



why askest thou me ? — ask tliem which heard me, 
what I have said unto them," — is very much of a 
piece with his reply to the armed party which seized 
him, as we read it in Saint Mark's Gospel an-d ia 
Saint Luke's * : — Are you come out as against a 
" thief, with swords and with staves, to take me ? I 
was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye 
took me not." In both answers wc discern the 
same tranquillity, the same reference to his public 
teaching. His mild expostulation with Pilate, upon 
two several occasions, as related by Saint John f, is 
delivered with the same unruffled temper as that 
which conducted him through the last scene of his 
life, as described by the other evangelists. His an- 
swer in Saint John's Gospel, to the officer who 
struck him with the palm of his hand, " If I have 
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil ; but if well, 
why smitest thou me J?" — was such an answer as 
might have been looked for from the person who, 
as he proceeded to the place of execution, bid his 
companions (as we are told by Saint Luke ||) weep 
not for him, but for themselves, their posterity, and 
their country ; and who, whilst he was suspended 
upon the cross, prayed for his murderers, — " for 
ihey know not," said he, what they do." The ur- 
gency also of his judges and prosecutors to extort 
from him a defence to the accusation, and his un- 
willingness to make any (which was a peculiar cir- 
cumstance) appears in Saint John's account, as well 
as in that of the other evangelists §. 

There are moreover two other correspondencies 
between Saint John's history of the transactions 
and theirs, of a kind somewhat diiferent from those 
which we have been now mentioning. 

The three first evangelists record what is called 



* Markxiv.48. Luke xxii. 52. + Chap, xviii. 34 ; xix. 11^ 
t Chap, xviii. 23. {| Luke xviii. 23, 

§ ^ee John. xix. 9. Matt, xxvii. 14, Luke xxiii. 9. 



294 THE EVIDENCES 

our Saviour s Agony, i. e. his devotion in the garden 
immediately before he was apprehended ; in which 
narrative they all make him pray "That the cup 
might pass from him." This is the particular me- 
taphor which they all ascribe to him. St. Matthew 
adds, " O my Father, if this cup may not pass 
away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done 
Now, Saint John does not give the scene in the gar^ 
den ; but when Jesus was seized, and some resist- 
ance was attempted to be made by Peter, Jesus, 
according to his account, checked the attempt with 
this reply, " Put up thy sword into the sheath ; — - 
the cup which my Father hath given me shall I not 
drink it|?" This is something more than consist- 
ency, — it is coincidence ; because it is extremely 
natural that Jesus, who, before he was apprehended, 
had been praying his Father that that cup might 
pass from him ; yet with such a pious retractation 
of his request, as to have added, ^' If this cup may 
not pass from me, thy will be done — it was na- 
tural, I say, for the same person, when he actually 
was apprehended, to express the resignation to 
which he had already made up his thoughts, and 
to express it in the form of speech which he had 
before used. " The cup which my Father hath 
given me, shall I not drink it ?" This is a coinci- 
dence between writers, in whose narratives there 
is no imitation, but great diversity. 

A second similar correspondency is the follow- 
ing : — Matthew and Mark make the charge upon 
which our Lord was condemned, to be a threat of 
destroying the temple : — " We heard him say, I 
will destroy this temple, made with hands ; and, 
within three days, I will build another made with- 
out hands J f but they neither of them inform us 
upon what circumstance this calumny was founded. 



t Chap. xxyI. 42, 



f Liike xYiii 11. 



X Maikxiv. 58, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 2^5 

Saint John, in the early part of the history *, sup- 
plies us with this information ; for he relates that, 
on our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem, when the 
Jews asked him ^' What sign she west thou unto us, 
seeing that thou doest these things ? — he answered, 
Destroy this temple, and in three da^s I will raise 
it up.'' This agreement could hardly arise from any 
thing but the truth of the case. From any care or 
design in Saint John, to make his narrative tally 
with the narratives of other evangelists, it certainly 
did not arise, for no such design appears, but the 
absence of it. 

A strons; and more general instance of as^reement 
is the following : — The first three evangelists have 
related the appointment of the twelve apostles f ; 
and have given a catalogue of their names in form. 
John, without ever mentioning the appointment, or 
giving the catalogue, supposes, throughout his whole 
narrative, Christ to be accompanied by a select 
party of disciples, — the number of these to be 
twelve J ; and v\ henever he happens to notice any 
one as of that number it is one included in the 
catalogue of the other evangelists ; and the names 
principally occurring in the course of his history of 
Christ, are the names extant in their list. This 
last agreement, which is of considerable moment, 
runs through every Gospel, and through every 
chapter of each. 

^11 this bespeaks reality, 



♦ Chap. ii. 19. 
X Cliai>. Yi. 70. 



+ Matt. 1. Mark iii. 14. Luke vi. 12. 
§ XX. *J4; — vi. 71. 



THE EVIDENCE^ 



CHAPTER V. 
Originalitij of our Samoiir's Character 

Jl HE Je^vs, whether right or wrong, had under- 
stood their prophecies to foretell the advent of a 
person w ho, by some supernatural assistance, should 
advance their nation to independence, and to a su- 
preme degree of splendor and prosperity. This was 
the reigning opinion and e}i:pectation of the times. 

Now, had Jesus beeq an enthusiast, it is proba- 
ble that his enthusiasm w^ouid have fallen in with 
the popular delusion ; and that, whilst he gave him-, 
self out to be the person intended by these predic- 
tions, he w^ould have assumed the character to which 
they were universally supposed to relate. 

Had he been an impostor, it was his business to 
have flattered the prevailing hopes, because these 
hopes were to be the instruments of his attraction 
and success. 

But, what is better than conjectures, is the fact, 
that all the pretended Messiahs actually did so. Wc 
learn from Josephus, that there were many of these. 
Some of them, it is probable, might be impostors, 
who thouo^ht that an advantage was to be taken of 
the state of public opinion. Others, perhaps, were 
enthusiasts, whose imagii^ation had been drawn to 
this particular object by the language and senti- 
ments which prevailed around them : but, whether 
impostors or enthusiasts, they concurred in produc- 
ing themselves in the character which their country- 
men looked for, that is to say, as the restorers au4 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



m 



deliverers of the nation, in that sense in which res- 
toration and deliverance were expected by tlie 
Jews. 

Why therefore Jesus, if he was like them, either 
an enthusiast or impostor, did not pursue the same 
conduct as they did, in framing his character and 
pretensions, it will be found cliffipult to explain. A 
mission, the operation and benefit of which was to 
take place in another life, was a thing unthought of 
as the subject of these prqphecies. That Jesus, 
coming to them as their Messiah, should come 
under ^ character totally different from that in which 
they expected him ; should deviate from the general 
persuasion, and deviate into pretensions absolutely 
singular and original, — appears to be inconsistent 
with the imputation of enthusiasm or imposture, 
both which, by their qature, I should expert, would, 
and both which, throughout the experience which 
this very subject furnishes, in fact have, followed 
the opinions that obtained at the time. 

If it be said that Jesus, having tried the other 
plan, turned at length to this, — I answer, That the 
thing is said without evidence ; against evidence ; 
that it was competent to the rest to have done the 
s^me, yet that nothing of this sort was thought of 
b^any. 



THE EVIDENCED 



CHAPTER VI. 

One argument, which has been much relied upoa 
(but not more than its just weight deserves) is the 
conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or 
referred to in Scripture, with the state of things in 
those times, as represented by foreign and inde- 
pendent accounts : — which conformity proves, that 
the writers of the New Testament possessed a 
species of local knowledge, which could only belong 
to an inhabitant of that country, and to one living 
in that age. This argument, if well made out by 
examples, is very little short of proving the absolute 
genuineness of the writings. It carries them up to 
the age of the reputed authors, to an age in which it 
must have been difficult to impose upon the Chris- 
tian public, forgeries in the names of those authors, 
and in which there is no evidence that any forgeries 
were attempted. It proves, at least, that the books, 
whoever were the authors of them, were composed 
by persons living in the time and country in which 
these things were transacted ; and consequently ca- 
pable, by their situation, of being well-informed of 
the facts which they relate ; and the argument is 
stronger when applied to the New Testament, than 
it is in the case of almost any other writings, by 
reason of the mixed nature of the allusions w hich 
this book contains. The scene of action is not con- 
fined to a single country, but displayed in the 
greatest cities of the Roman empire. Allusions are 
made to the manners and principles of the Greeks, 
the Romans, and the Jews. This variety renders a 
forgery proportionably more difficult, especially to 
writers of a posterior age. A Greek or Roman 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Christian, who lived in the second or third cen- 
tury, would have been wanting in Jewish literature ; 
a Jewish convert in those ages would have been 
equally deficient in the knowledge of Greece and 
Rome*. 

This, however, is an argument which depends 
entirely upon an induction of particulars; and as, 
consequently, it carries with it Httle force, withouta 
view ot the instances upon which it is built, I have 
to request the readers attention to a detail of ex- 
amples, distinctly and articulately proposed. In 
collecting these examoles, I have done no more 
than epitomize the first volume of the first part of 
Dr. Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History ; 
and I have brought the argument within its present 
compass, first, By passing over some of his sections 
in which the accordancy appeared to me less cer- 
tain, or upon subjects not sufficiently appropriate or 
circumstantial ; secondly. By contracting every sec- 
tion into the fewest words possible, contenting my- 
self for the most part with a mere opposition of pas- 
sages ; and, thirdly. By omitting many disquisi- 
tions, which, though learned and accurate, are not 
absolutely necessary to the understanding or verifi- 
cation of the argument. 

The writer principally made use of in the inquiry 
is Josephus. Josephus was born at Jerusalem, four 
years after Christ's ascension. He wrote his history 
of the Jewish war some time after the destruction 
of Jerusalem, w hich happened in the year of our 
Lord seventy, that is, thirty-seven years after his as- 
cension ; and his history of the Jews he finished in 
the year ninety- three, that is, sixty years after the 
ascension. 

At the head of each article, I have referred, by 
.figures included in brackets, to the page of Dr. 



* Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament (Marsh's 
Translation) c. ii. sec, xi. 



300 



THE EVIDENCES 



Lardner's volume, where the section, from which 
the abridgement is made, begins. Tiie edition used 
is that of 1741. 

I. [p. 14.] Matt. ii. 22. When he (Joseph) 
heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea, in the room 
of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither ; 
notwithstanding, being Avarned of God in a dream, 
he turned a^ide into the parts of Galilee." 

In this passage it is asserted, that iVrchelaus suc- 
ceeded Herod in Judea ; and it is implied, that his 
power did iiot extend to Galilee. Now we learn 
from Josephus, that Herod the Great, whose do- 
minion included all the land of Israel, appointed 
Archelaus his successor in Judea, and assigned the 
rest of his dominions to other sons ; and that this 
disposition was ratified, as to the main parts of it, 
by the Roman emperor 

Saint Matthew says, that Archelaus reigned, was 
liing in Judea. Agreeably to this, we are informed 
by Josephus, not only that Herod appointed Ar- 
chelaus his successor in Judea, but that he also ap- 
pointed him with the title of King ; and the Greek 
verb (/3acrt^£y80 which the evangelist uses to denote 
the government and rank of Archelaus, is used like- 
wise by Josephus f . 

The cruelly of Archelaus's character, which is not 
obscurely intimated by the evangelist, agrees with 
divers particulars in his history, preserved by Jose- 
phus : — In the tenth year of his government, the 
chief of the Jews and Samaritans, not being able to 
endure his cruelty and tyranny, presented com- 
plaints against him to Caesar J." 

n. [p. 19.] Luke iii. 1. " In the fifteenth year of 
the reign of Tiberius Cassar, Herod being tetrarch 



* Ant. lib. XYii. c. 8. sect. 1. 
f De Bell. lib. 1. c. 33. sect. 7. 
% hi\X> lib. svii. c. lU. sect> 1, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



301 



of Galilefe, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea 
and of the region of Trachonitis, — the word of 
God came unto John." 

By the will of Herod the Great, and the decree 
of Augustus thereupon, his two sons were appoint- 
ed, one (Herod Antipas) tetrarch of Galilee and 
Peraga, and the other (Philip) tetrarch of Tracno- 
nitis and the neighbouring countries We have 
therefore these two persons in the situations in 
which Saint Luke places them; and also, that 
they were in these situations in the fif teenth 
year of Tiberius ; in other words, that they con- 
tinued in possession of their territories and titles 
until that time, and afterwards, appears from a 
passage of Josephus, which relates of Herod, " That 
he was rtmoved by Caligula, the successor of Ti- 
berius f ; and of Philip, that he died in the twen- 
tieth year of Tiberius, when he had governed Tra- 
chonitis and Batanea and Gaulanitis thirty-seven 
years J." 

in. [p. 20.] Mark v. 17 §. — "Herod had sent 
forth, and laid hold upon John, and bound him in 
prison, for Herodias's sake, his brother Philip's 
>vife ; for he had married her." 

With this compare Joseph. Antiq. I. xviii. c. 6. 
sect. 1. : — "He (Herod the tetrarch) made a visit 
to Herod his brother. Here, falling in love with 
Herodias, the wife of the said Herod, he ventured 
to make her proposals of marriage ||," 



* Ant, lib. xvii. c. 8. sect. 1. f lb- lib. xviii. c. 8. sect. 2. 

t lb. c. 5. sect. 6. § See also Matt. xiv. 1—13 ; Liikeiii. 19. 

jj The affinity of the two accounts is unquestionable ; but there is 
a difference in the name of Herodias's first husband, which, in the 
evang:elist, is Philip ; in Josephus, Herod. The difficulty, however, 
will not appear considerable, when we recollect how common it 
was in those times for the same person to bear two natmes. " SimoR 
which is called Peter ; Libbeus, \f^hose surname is Thaddeus ; Tho- 
«3as, which is called Didymus ; Simeon, who was called Niger ; Saul, 



30^ 



tHE EVlt)EN'CES 



Again, Mark vi. 2^. " And when the daughter 
of the said Her odias came in and danced," — 

With this also compare Jos. Ant. 1. xviii. c. 6. 
sect. 4. — " Herodias was married to Herod, son 
of Herod the Great. They had a daughter^ whose 
name was Salome ; after whose birth, Herodias, in 
utter violation of the laws of her country, left her 
husband, then Hving, and married Herod the te- 
trarch of Galilee, her husband's brother by the fa- 
ther's side." 

IV. [p. 29.] Acts xii. 1. — Now, about that 
time, Herod the King stretched forth his hands to 
vex certain of the Church." In the conclusion of 
the same chapter, Herod's death is represented to 
have taken place soon after this persecution. The 
accuracy of our historian, or rather the unmeditated 
coincidence, which truth of its own accord pioduces, 
is in this instance remarkable. There was no por- 
tion of time, for thirty years before, nor ever after- 
wards, in which there was a king at Jerusalem, a 
person exercising that authority in Judea, or to 
whom that title could be applied, except the three 
last years of this Herod's life, within which period 
the transaction recorded in the Acts is stated to have 
taken place. This prince was the grandson of 
Herod the Great. In the Acts, he appears under 
his family name of Herod ; by Josephus he is called 
Agrippa ; for proof that he was a king^ properly so 
called, we have the testimony of Josephus in full 
and direct terms : — ^' Sending for him to his pa- 
lace, Caligula put a crown upon his head, and ap- 



who was also called Paul." The solution is rendered likewise easier 
in the present case, by the consideration, that Herod the Great had 
children by seven or eight wives ; that Josephus raentious three of 
his sons under the name of Herod ; that it is nevertheless highly 
probable that the brothers bore some additional name, by which 
they were distinguished from one another. — Lardner, vol ii. p. 8974 



OF eHniSTIANITY. 303 

pointed him king of the tetrarchy of Philip, intend- 
ing also to give him the tetrarchy of Lysanius*;" 
and that Judea v/as at last, but not until the last, 
included in his dominions, appears by a subsequent 
passage of the same Josephus; wherein he tells us 
that Claudius, by a deciee, confirmed to Agrippa 
the dominion which Caligula had given him ; adding 
also Judea and Samaria^ in the utmost extent, as 
possessed by his grandfather Herodr 

V. fp- 32.] Actsxii, 19— 23. —"And he (He- 
rod ; went down from Judea to Cesarea, and there 
abode ; and upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal 
apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration 
unto them ; and the people gave a shout, saying, 
It is the voice of a god and not of a man : and im- 
mediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because 
he gave not God the glory ; and he was eaten of 
worms, and he gave up the ghost." 

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xix. c. 8. sect. 2. — - " He went 
to the city of Cesarea. Here he celebrated shows 
in honour of Ciesar. On the second day of the 
shows, early in the morning, he came into the 
theatre, dressed in a robe of silver, of most curious 
workmanship. The rays of the rising sun, reflected 
from so splendid a garb, gave him a majestic and 
awful appearance. They called him a god, and 
entreated him to be propitious to them, saying, 
Hitherto we have respected }"0u as a man ; but now 
we acknowledge }ou to be more than mortal. The 
king neither reproved these persons, nor rejected 
the impious flattery. Immediately after this, he 
was seized with pains in his bowels, extremely vio- 
lent at the very first. He was carried therefore 
with all haste to his palace. These pains continuall}' 
tormenting him, he expired in five days' timef." 



* Aatiq^. xviii, c. 7. sect 10. f lb. xix c. 5. sect. 1. 



/ 



304 



THE EVIDENCES 



The reader will perceive the accordaricy of 
these accounts in various particulars. The place 
(Cesarea) the set day, the gorgeous dress, the ac- 
clamations of the assembly, the peculiar turn of the 
flattery, the reception of it, the sudden and critical 
incursion of the disease, are circumstances noticed 
in both narratives. The w^orms, mentioned by Saint 
LukCj are not remarked by Josephus; but the ap- 
pearance of these is a symptom, not unusually, I 
believe, attending the disease which Josephus de- 
scribes, "viz* violent affections of the bovvels. 

VL [p. 41.] Acts xxiv. 24. " And after certain 
days, when Felix came Arith his wife Drusilla, 
which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul." 

Jos. Antiq. lib. xx. c. 6. sect. 1,2. — Agrippa 
gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king 
of the Emesenes, when he had consented to be cir- 
cumcised ; but this marriage of Drusilla with Azizus 
was dissolved in a short time after, in this manner : 
When Feliv was procurator of Judea, having had 
a sight of her, he was mightily taken with her. She 
was induced to transgress the laws of her country, 
and marry Felix." 

Here the public station of Felix, the name of his 
wife, and the singular circumstance of her religion, 
all appear in perfect conformity with the evangelist. 

VII. [p. 46.] And after certain days king Ag- 
rippa and Bernice came to Cesarea to salute Festus." 
By this passage we are in effect told, that Agrippa 
was a king, but not of Judea ; for he came to salute 
Festus, who at that time administered the govern- 
ment of that country at Cesarea, 

Now how does the history of the age correspond 
with this account ? The Agrippa here spoken of, 
was the son of Herod Agrippa, mentioned in the 
last article; but that he did not succeed to bis 



OF CHRISTIAXIxr. 



505 



father s khigdom, iivor ever recovered Judea, which 
had been a part of it, we leara by the information 
of Josephus, who relates of him that, when his 
father was dead, Claudius intended, at first, to have 
put him immediately in possession of his father's 
dominions; but that, Agrippa being then but seven- 
teen years of age, the emperor was persuaded to 
alter his mind, and appointed Cuspius Fadus pre- 
fect of Judea and the whole kingdom * ; which 
Fadus was succeeded by Tiberius Alexander, Cu- 
manus, Felix, Festusf. But that, though disap- 
pointed of his father s kingdom, in which was in- 
cluded Judea, he was nevertheless rightly styled 
Ki?2g Agri[)pa; and that he was in possession of 
considerable territories bordering upon Judea, we 
gather from the same authority ; for, after several 
successive donations of country, Claudius, at the 
same time lhat he sent Felix to be procurator of 
Judea, promoted Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater 
kingdom, giving to him the tetrarchy whicii had 
been Philip's ; and he added moreover tne kingdom 
of Lysanias, and the province that had beioined to 
Varus t." 

Saint Paul addresses this person as a Jew : — 
^' King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? I 
know that thou believest." As the son of Herod 
Agrippa, who is described by Josephus to have 
been a zealous Jew, it is reasonable to suppose 
that he maintained the same profession ; but what 
is more material to remark, because it is more close 
and circumstantial, is, that Saint Luke, speaking of 
the father (Acts xii. 1, 3.) calls him Herod the 
king, and gives an example of the exercise of his au- 
thority at Jerusalem . Speaking of the son (xxv. 1 3.) 



* Aiitiq. xix. c. 9- ad fin. 
f lb. XX. Do Bell. lib. 2. 
X lb. XX. lib. iii. c, xii. ad fin. 
X 



THE EVIDENCES 



he calls him king, but not of Judea ; which distinc- 
tion agrees correctly with the histo^3^ 

VIII. [p. 51 ] Acts xiii. 6.—-'' And when they 
had gone through the isle (Cyprus) to Paphos, they 
found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, 
whose name was Bar-jesus, which was with the de- 
puty of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man." 

The word, which is here translated deputy^ sig- 
nifics procojisul ; and upon ihis word our observa- 
tion is founded. The provinces of the Roman em- 
pile were of two kinds : those belonging to the 
emperor, in which the governor was called Pro- 
prsetor ; and those belonging to the senate, in which 
the governor was called Proconsul ; and this was a 
regular distinction. Now it appears from Dio Cas- 
sius that the province of Cyprus, which in the 
original distribution was assigned to the emperor, 
had been transferred to the senate, in exchange for 
some others ; and that, after this exchange, the ap- 
propriate title of the Romangovernor was proconsul. 

lb. xviii. 12. [p. 55.] — • And when Gallio was 
deputy (proconsul) of Achaia." 

The propriety of the' title proconsul is m this 
passage still more critical. For the province of 
Achaia, after passing from the senate to the em- 
peror, had been restored again by the emperor 
Claudius to the senate (and consequently its go- 
vernment had become pj^oconsular) only six or 
seven years before the time in which this transac- 
tion is said to have taken place t ?* and what con- 
fines with strictness the appehation to the time is, 
that Achaia under the following reign ceased to be 
a Roman province at all. 



* Lib. liv. ad A- U. 782. 

t Suet, in Ciaud. c. xxv. Dio. lib. Ixi. 



bV fcHRtSTiANiTr= 



S07 



IX. [p. 152.] It appears, as well froth the gene- 
ral constitution of a Roman province, as from what 
Josephus delivers concerning the state of Judea in 
particular * that the power of life and death resided 
Exclusively in the Roman governor ; but that the 
Jews, nevertheless, had magistrates and a council, 
invested with a subordinate and a municipal autho- 
rity. This economy is discerned in every part of 
the Gospel narrative of our Saviour's crucifixion « 

X. [p. -208.] Acts ix. 31. — Then had the 
churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee, 
and Samaria." 

The 7xst synchronizes with the attempt of Caligiild. 
to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem ; thd 
threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews 
a consternation that, for a season^ diverted their 
attention from any other object f . 

XI. [p. 218.] Acts xxi, 13. — " And they took 
Paul, and drew him out of the temple, and forth- 
with the doors were shut ; and as they went about 
to kill him, tidings came to the chief captain of the 
band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Theii 
the chief captain came near, and took him, and 
commanded him to be bound with two chains, and 
demanded who he was, and what he had done ; and 
some cried one thing, arid some another, among the 
multitude ; and, when he could not know the cer- 
tainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be 
carried into the castle; and when he came upon 
the stairs, so it was that he was borne of the sol- 
diers for the violence of the people." 



* Antiq. lib. xx. c. 8. sect. 5. c. 1. sect. 2. 
f Joseph, dc Beli. lib. xi. c. 13. sect. K3,4K 
X ^ 



SOS 



THE EVIDENCES 



III this quotation we have the band of Roman 
soldiers at Jerusaleni, their office (to suppress tu- 
mults) the castle, the stairs, both, as it should seem, 
adjoicing to the temple. Let us inquire Mhether 
w e can find these particulars in any other record of 
that age and place. 

Joseph, de Bell. lib. v. c. 5. sect. 8. — Antonia 
was situated at the angle of the western and northern 
porticoes of the outer temple. It was built upon a 
rock fifty cubits high, steep on all sides. On that 
side where it joined to the porticoes of the temple, 
there were stairs reaching to each portico, by which 
the guard descended ; for there was always lodged 
here a Roman legion^ and, posting themselves in 
their armour in several places in the porticoes, thej 
kept a watch on the people on the feast days, to p7X' 
"cent all disorders; for, as the temple was a guard 
to the city, so was Antonia to the temple." 

XII. [p. 224.] Acts iv. ]. And as they spake 
unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the 
temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them." — 
Here we have a public officer, under the tide of 
Captain of the Temple, and he probably a Jew, as 
he accompanied the priests and Sadducees in appre- 
hending the aposdes. 

Joseph, de Bell. hb. ii. c. 17. sect. 2. — And at 
the temple, Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high 
priest, a young man of a bold and resolute dispo- . 
sition, then captain, persuaded those who perform- 
ed the sacred ministrations, not to receive the gift 
or sacrifice of any stranger," 

XIII, [p. 22J.] Acts XXV. 12. — " Then Festus, 
when he had conferred with the council, answered, 
Hast thou appealed unto Ca?sar ? Unto Caesar shalt 
thou^o." That it was usual for the lioman presidents 



OF CHtllSTlANITY. 



309 



to have a council, consisting of their friends and 
other chief Romans in the province, appears ex- 
pressly in the following passage of Cicero's oration 
against Verres : — " Illud negare posses, aut nunc 
negabis, te, concilio, tuo dimisso, viris priniariis, 
qui in consilo C. Sacerdotis fuerent, tibique esse 
volebant, remotis, de re judicata judicasse ?" 

XIV. [p. 235.] Acts xvi. 13. — "And (at Phi- 
lippi) on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a 
river- side, where prayer w^as wont to be made," or 
where a proseucha, oratory, or place of prayer, was 
allowed. The particularity to be remarked is the 
situation of the place where prayer was wont to be 
made, mz. by a river- side. 

Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of 
Alexandria, upon a certain public occasion, relates 
X)f them, that, early in the morning, flocking out of 
the gates of the city, they go to the neigJiboiiring 
shores (for the proseucha were destroyed), and, 
standing in a most pure place, they lift up their 
voices with one accord *." 

Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicar- 
nassus, permitting the Jews to build oratories; a 
part of which decree runs thus: — *'We ordain, 
That the Jews, who are willing, men and women, 
do observe the Sabbaths, and perform sacred rites 
according to the Jewish laws, and build oratories 
hy the sea- side 

> Tertullian, among other Jewish rites and cus- 
toms, such as feasts. Sabbaths, fasts, and unleaven- 
ed bread, mentions orationes litorales ; that is, 
prayers by the river side \, 



* Philo in Flacc. p. .382. 

t Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10. sect. 24. 

+ Tcrtul. ad Nat. lib. i. c. 13. 



310 



THE EVIDENCES 



XV. [p. 255.] Acts xxvi. 5. — " After the rno^ 
^traitest sect qf our religion, I lived a Pharisee." 

Jos. de Bell. lib. i. c. 5. sect. 2. — ''The Phari- 
sees were reckoned the most religious of any of the 
Jews, and to be the most emct and skilful in ex- 
plaining the laws." 

In the original, there is an agreement pot oilly in 
the sense, but in the expression, it being the same 
Greek adjective which is rendered strait in th-e Acts^ 
^nd e^vact in Josephus, 

XVI. [p. £55.] Mark viii. 3, 4. The Phari^ 
sees arid all the Jews, except they wash, eat notj, 
holding the tradition of the elders ; and many other 
things there be which they haye received to hold>" 

Joseph. Antiq. Hb. xiii. c. 10. sect. 6. — "The 
Pharisees have delivered to the people many insti- 
tutions, as received from the fathers, which are not. 
written in the law of Moses," 

XVII. [p. 259] Acts xxiii. 8. — "For the Sad- 
ducees say, that there is no resurrection, neither 
angel nor spirit ; but the Pharisees confess both." 

Joseph, de Bell lib. ii. c. 8. sect. 14. — " They 
(the Pharisees) believe every soul to be immortal, 
but that the soul of the good only passes into ano- 
ther body, and that the soul of the wicked is punish- 
ed with eternal punishment." On the other hand, 
(Antiq. Hb. xviii. c. i. sect. 4.) " It is the opinion of 
ihe Sadducees, that souls perish with th^ bodies." 

XVIII. [p. 268.] Acts V. 17. — ^' Then the high 
priest rose up, and all they that were vv^ith him 
(which is the sect of the Sadducees) and were fillecj 
with indignation." Saint Luke here intimates, that 
the high priest was a Sadducee ; which is a character 
one would not have expected to npeet with in ths^t 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



station. This circumstance, remarkable as it is, 
was not however without examples. 

Jos. Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 10. sect. 6, 7- — " John 
Hyfcanus, high priest of the Jews, forsook the Pha- 
risees upon a disgust, and joined himself to the party 
of the Sadducees." This high priest died one hun- 
dred and seven years before the Christian ffira. 

Again, (Ant. lib. xx. c. 8. sect. 1 )•—''' This 
Ananus the younger, who, as we have said just now, 
had received the high-priesthood, was fierce and 
haughty in his behaviour, and above all men, bold 
and daring, and moreover, zras of the sect of the 
Saddiiceesy This high priest lived little more than 
tweiity years aft^^r the transaction in the Acts. 

XIX. [p. m^-l Luke ix. 51.-— "And it came 
to pass, when the time was come that he should be 
received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Je- 
rusalem, and sent messengers before his face ; and 
they went, and entered into a village of the Sama- 
ritans, to make ready for him ; and they did not 
receive liim, because his face w^s as though he 
would go to Jerusalem,'' 

Jos. Antiq. lib. xx. c. 5. sect. 1. — " It was the 
CH^tom of th-e Galileans, who went up to the holy 
city at the feasts, to travel through the country of 
Samaria. As they were in their journey, some in- 
habitants of the village called Gineea, which lies on 
the borders of Samaria and the great plain, falling 
upon them, killed a great many of them." 

XX, [p. 278.] John iy. 20,— ^^ Our fadiers," 
s^id the Samaritan woman, " worshipped in this 
motmtmn ; and ye say that Jerusalem is the place 
where men ought to worship." 

Jos. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 5. sect. ]. — " Com- 
TRaiiding them to meet him at Mount Gerizzim, 
which is by tliem (the Samaritans) esteemed the 
mo&t sacred af all mountains." 



THE EVIDENCES 



XXI [p. 312.] Matt, xxvi 3. — ''Then as< 
sembled together ihe chief priests, and the elders of 
the people, unto the palace of the high priest, xvho 
was called Caiaphas'' That Caiaphas was high 
priest, and high priest throughout the presidentship 
of Pontius Pilate, and consequently at this time, 
appears from the following account: — He was 
made high priest by Valerius Gratus, predecessor 
of Pontius Pilate, and was removed from his office 
by Vit<llius, president of Syria, after Pilate was 
sent away out of the province of Judea. Josephus 
relates the advancement of Caiaphas to the high- 
priesthood in this manner: — "Gratus gave the high- 
priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. He, 
having enjoyed tliis honour not above a year, was 
succeeded by Joseph, zvho is also called Caiaphas^. 
After this, Gratus went away for Rome, having 
been eleven years in Judea; and Pontius Pilate 
came thither as his successor.'' Of the removal of 
Caiaphas from his o{fice, Josephus, likewise, after- 
wards informs us ; and connects it with a circum- 
stance, which fixes the time to a date subsequent to 
the termination of Pilate's government. — " Vitel- 
lius," he tells us, " ordered Pilate to repair to 
Rame ; and after that^ went up himself to Jeru- 
salem, and then gave directions concerning several 
matters ; and having done these things, he took away 
the priesd:ood from the high priest Joseph, who is 
called Caiaphas \r 

XXn. (Michaelis, c. xi. sect. 11.) Acts xxiii. 
4. — " And they that stood by said, Ptevilest thou 
God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, 
brethren, that he was the high priest" — Now, 
upon inquiry into the history of the age, it turns 
out that Ananias, of whom this was spoken, was, 
in truth, not the high priest, though he was sit- 



t Ibid. c. 5. sect. 3. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. $]& 

ting in judgment in that assumed capacity. The 
case was, That he had formerly held the office, and 
had been deposed; that the person who succeeded 
him had been murdered ; that another was not yet 
appointed to the station ; and that, during the va- 
cancy, he had of his own authority taken upon, 
himself the discharge of the office*. This singu- 
lar situation of the high priesthood took place dur- 
ing the interval between the death of Jonathan, wiio^ 
was murdered by order of Felix, and the acces.-ior^ 
of Ismae], who was invested with the high priest- 
hood by A,o:rippa ; and precisely in this interval it 
happened that Saint Paul was apprehended, and 
brought before the Jewish council. 

XXTII. [p. 323.1 Matt. xxvi. 59. Now the< 
chief priests and elders, and all the council, sought 
false witnesses against him." 

Jos. Ant. lib. xviii. c. 15. sect. 3, 4. Then 
might be seen the high priests themselves^ with 
asiies on their heads, and tlieir breasts naked." 

The agreement here consists in speaking of the 
high priests, or chief priests (for the name in the 
original is the same) in the plural nmnber, when, 
in striclne.s, there was only o/zehigh priest; which 
may be considered as a proof that the evangelists 
were halutuated to the manner of speaking then 
in use, because they retain it when it is neither ac- 
curate nor just. For the sake of brevity, I have 
put down, irom Josephus, only a single example of 
the application of this title in the plural number; 
ibut it is his usual style. 

Ibid. [p. 871.] Luke iii. 1, "Now, in the fif- 
teenth year of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being 
governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of 



* J(is. Ant. I. XX. c. 5. sect. 2^ 6. sect. 2 j c. 9. sect. 2. 



314 



THE EVIDENCES 



Galilee, Annas and Caiaphas being the kighpriesis, 
the word of God came unto John." Tiiere is a 
passage in Josephus very nearly parallel to this, and 
M'hich may at least serve to vindicate the evangelist 
from objection, with respect to his giving the title 
of High Priest specifically to two persons at the 
same time : — " Quadratqs sent two others of the 
most powerful men of the Jews, as also the high 
priests Jonathan and Annanias^'' That Annas 
was a person in an eminent station, and possessed 
an authority co-ordinate with, or next to that of 
the Hi^h Priest, properly so called, may be inferred 
from Saint John's Gospel, which, in the history of 
Christ's crucifixion, relates that the soldiers led 
him away to Annas first f and this might be no- 
ticed as an example of undesigned coincidence in 
the two evangelists. 

Again [p. 870.] Actsiv. (5. Annas is called the 
High Priest, though Caiaphas was in the office of 
the high priesthood. In like manner in Josephus 

Joseph, the son of Gorion, and the high priest 
Ananus, were chosen to be supreme governors of all 
things in the city." Yet Ananus, though here called 
tlie High Priest Ananus, was not then in the office 
of the high priesthood. The truth is, there is an in- 
determinateness in the use of this title in the Gos- 
pel • sometimes it is applied exclusively to the per- 
son who held the office at the time ; sometimes to 
one or two more, who probably shared with him 
some of the povrers or functions of the office ; and, 
sometimes, to such of the priests as were eminent 
in their station or character § ; and there is the very 
same indeterminateness in Josephus. 

XXIV. [p. 34T.] John xix. ]o, 30. " And Pilate. 
t\-rote a title, and put it on the cross." That such was 



* De Bell. lib. ix. c 1. sect. 6. 
% lb. Jib. ii. c. 20. sect. 2. 



+ Tb.. Jib.xYiii. 13. 
^ ^lark xiv. 63, 



OF CHRISTIAlvJif V. 



tire custpitt of the Romans upon these occasion^, 
appears from passages of Suetonius and Dio Cas- 
sius : — Patrem familias, — canibus objecit, cum 
hoc tituio, Impie locutus parmularius," Suet. Do* 
unit. cap. x. ; — and in Dio Cassius we have the fol- 
lowing : — Having led them through the priidst of 
the court or assembly, with a zvriting signifying 
the cause of his death, aftervi^ards crucifymg him." 
— Book liv. 

Ibid. " And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and 
X-'dtin.'' That it was also usual about this time in 
Jerusalem tQ set up advertisements in different 
languages, is gathered from the account which Jo- 
sephus gives us of an expostulatory message from 
Titus to the Jews, when the city was almost in his 
hands ; in which he says, Did ye not erect pillars, 
with inscriptions on them, in the Greek and in oun 
language^''' Let no one pass beyond these bounds?" 

XXV. [p. 352.] Matt.xxvii. 26. "When he had 
scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." 

The following passages occur in Josephus :— 

" Being beaten, they were crucified opposite to 
the citadel *." 

Whom having^r^^ scourged; zvith xvhips, he 
crucified f." 

He was burnt alive, having been first beaten J." 

To which may be added one from Livy, lib. xi. 
^,5, " Productique omnes, •y/r^'/.y^z^e cce^e, ac se- 
curi percussi." 

A riiodevn example may illustrate the use we - 
irake of this instance. The preceding of a capital 
execution by the corporal punishment of the suf- 
ferer, is a practice unknown in England, but re-. 



* P. 1247, 24th edit. Huds. 
t P. 42d edit. 



t P. 1080, 45th edit. 



316 



THE EVIDENCES 



tained. in some instances at least, as appears by 
the iate execution of a regicide in Sweden. Thi^ 
circumstance, therefore, in the account of an Eng- 
lish execution, purporting to come from an English 
writer, would not only bring a suspicion upon the 
truth of the account, but would, in a considerable 
degree, impeach its pretensions of having been 
written b}^ the author whose name it bore; whereas 
the same circumstance, in the account of a Swedish 
execution, would verify the account, and support 
the authenticity of the book in which it was found ; 
or, at least, would })rove that the author, whoever 
he was, possessed the informaiion and the know- 
ledge which he ought to possess. 

XXVI. [p. 353.] John xix. Id. ''And they 
took Jesus, and led him away ; and he bearing /^s 
crossy went forth.'" 

Plutarch De iis qui sero puniuntur. p. 65 i ; a 
Paris, 16£4. "Every kind of wickedness produces 
its own particular torment, just as every malefactor 
when he is brought forth to execution, <'arrics his 
own cross,'' 

XXVIL Johp xi^. 3$. ''Then came the sol- 
diers, and brake the legs of the first, and of tlie 
other whicb \\ as cruciiied with iiim." 

Constantine abolished the punishment of the 
cross ; in coirmieiiding which edict, a Heathen wri- 
ter notices this very circumstance of breaking the 
legs : — Eo plus, ut etiam yestus yeterrimtimque 
supplicium, patibulum, et criiribus suffiingendis^ 
pruD'js removerit." — Aur. Vict. Ces. cap. xii. 

XXVIII. [p. 457.] Actsiii. 1. " X^ow^, Peter 
and John went up together into .the temple, at the 
hqur^of prayer, being the ninth hour.'' . 

"jos. Ant. lib. xv, c. 7- ^ect. 8.. " Twice everv 



OF CHRISTIA jrlTT. 



Sir 



day, in the morning, and at the ninih hour, the 
priests perform their duty at the altar." 

XXIX. [p. 460.] Acts XV. 21. " For Moses of 
old time, hath in every city them that preach him, 
being read in the sijna^ogues every Sabbath-day. 

Jos. contra Ap. 1. ii. " He (Moses) gave us the 
law, the most excellent of all institutions; nor did 
he appoint that it should be heard once only, or 
twice, or often, but that laying aside all other works, 
we should meet togeihev every week to hear liready 
and gain a perfect understanding of it." 

XXX. [p. 465.] Acts xxi. 23. — " We have 
four men which have a voxv on them ; them take, 
and purify thyself with them, that they may shave 
their heads T 

Jos. de Bell. 1. xi. c. 15. — It is customary for 
those who have btenafilicted with some distemper, 
or have laboured under any other difficulties, to 
make a vow thirty days before they offer sacrifices, 
to abstain from wine, and shave the hair of their 
heads'' 

lb. v. 24. — " Them take, and pui if}' thyself with 
them, and be at charges with thenij that they may 
shave their heads'' 

Jos. Antiq. 1. xix. c. 6, " He (Herod Agnppa) 
cominglo Jerusalem, offered up sacrifices of thanks- 
giving, and omitted nothing that was prescribed by 
the law ; lor which reason he also ordered a g( od 
number of Nazarites to be shaved,'' We here find 
that it was an act of piety amongst the Jevrs to de- 
fray, for those who were under the Nazaritic vow, 
the expences which attended its completion ; and 
that the phrase was, That they might be shaved. — 
The custom and the expression are both remark- 
able, and both in close conformity with the Scrip- 
ture account. 



31S 



THE EViBEKCES 



XXXr. [p. 474.] ^ Cor. xi. M. Of the Jeu 
five times received I forty stripes, save one.'" 

Jos. Ant. iv. c. 8. sect. xxi. " He that acts con- 
trary hereto, let him receive forty stripes, wanting 
one, from the public officer." 

The coincidence here is singular, beeaiise the law 
allozved forty stripes : — " Forty stripes he may give 
him, and not Exceed." Deut. xxv. 3 It proves that 
the authoi' of the Epistle to the Corinthians was 
guided not by books, but by facts ; because his 
statement agrees with the actual custom, even when 
that custom deviated from the written law, and from 
what he must have learnt by consulting the Jewish 
code, as set forth in the Old Testament. 

XXXlI. [p. 490.] Luke iii. 12. Then came 
also publicans to be baptized." Prom this quota- 
tion, as well as from the history of Levi or Matthew^ 
(Luke V. 29-) find of Zaccheus (Luke xix. 2.) it 
appears that the publicans, or tax gaitherers, werfe, 
frequently at least, if not always, Jews ; which, as 
the country was then under a Roman government, 
and the taxes were paid to the Romans, was a cir- 
cumstance not to be expected. That it was the 
truth, however, of the case, appears from a short 
passage of Josephus. 

De Bell. lib. ii. c. 14. sect. 45. But, Florus not 
restraining these practices by his authority, the chief 
men of the Jews, among xvhom was John the pub- 
iicmi, not knowing well what course to take, wait 
upon Florus, and give him eight talents of silver to 
stop the building.*' 

XXXIIL [p. 49^.] Acts xxii. 25. " And as they 
bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centu- 
rion tliat stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a 
man that is a Roman, and uncondemned ?" 



6f CHRIStlANiTY. 



319 



^' Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum ; scelus 
verberaii." Cic. inVer. 

" Cagdebatur virgis, in medio foro Messanae, civis 
Romanus, Judices : cum interea nullus gemitus, 
nulla vox alia, istius miseri inter dolorem crepitum- 
que plagarum audiebatur. nisi hoec, Civis Romaniis 
sum.'' 

XXXIV. [p. 513.] Acts xxii. 27. Then the 
chief captain came, and said unto him (Paul) Tell 
me, Art thou a Roman ? He said, Yea." The cir- 
cumstance here to be noticed is, That a Jew was a 
Roman citizen. 

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10. sect. 13. Lu- 
cius Lentulus, the consul, declared, I have dismissed 
from the service the Jewish Roman citizenSj who 
observe the rites of the Jewish religion at Ephesus. ' 

lb. V. 27. And the chief captain answered, 
IVith a great sum obtained I this freedom^' 

Dio Cassius, lib. Ix. This privilegCj whicli 
had been bought J'ormerli/ at a great price^ became 
so cheap, that it was commonly said, a man might 
be made a Roman citizen for a few pieces of broken 
glass." 

XXXV. [p. 521.] Acts xxviii. \6. "And wheii 
we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the pri- 
soners 10 the captain of the guard ; but Paul was 
&uff€red to dwell by himself, with a soldier that 
kept him" 

With which join verse 20. " For the hope of 
Israel, I am bound with this chain" 

" Quemadmodum eadem catena et custodiam 
et militem copulat; sic ista, quas tarn dissimilia 
siint, pariter, incedunt." Seneca, Ep. v. 

Proconsul a3stimare solet utrum in carcerem 
recipienda sit persona, an militi tradenda'' W 
pian. 1. i. sect. De Custod. et Exhib. Reor. 



5^0 



IME EVIDENCED 



In ths conlinement of Agrippa, by the order of 
Tiberius, Antonia managed, that the centurion who 
presided over the guards, and the .soldier to xvhom 
Agrippa xvas to be bound, might be iDen of niild 
cbaracler. Jos. Ant. lib. xviii. c.7. sect. 5. — After 
the accession of Caligula, Agrippa also, like Paul, 
was suffered to dwell, yet as a prisoner, in his own 
house. 

XXXVI. [p. 531.] Acts xxvii. i . "And when 
it was determined that he should sail intoltaly^ they 
delivered Paul, and certain other prisoners, unto 
one named JuUus." Since not only Paul, but cer- 
tain other prisoners, were sent by the same ship 
into Italy, the text must be considered as carrying 
with it an intimation, that the sending of persons 
from Judea to be tried at Rome, was an ordinary 
practice. That in truth it was so, is made out by 
a variety of examples which the writings of Josephus 
furnish ; and, amongst others, by the following, 
which comes near both to the time and the subject 
of the instance in the Acts. Felix, for some 
slight offence, bound and sent to Rojne sevevo] priests 
of his acquaintance, and very good and honest men, 
to answer for themselves to Caesar." Joseph, in 
Vit. sect. 3. 

XXX VII. [p. 539.] Acts xi. 27. And in these 
days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch ; 
and there stood up one of them, named Agabus, and 
signified by the Spirit that there should be a great 
dearth throughout all the vvorld (or all the coun- 
ti y) ; zvhich came to pass in the days oj Claudiu$^ 
CcEsarT 

Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 4. sect. 5. " In their 
time (i. e. about the fifth or sixth year of Claudius) 
a great deartn happened in Judea," 



OF CHRlS-riAT^lTV. 



321 



XXXVIII. [p. 555.] Acts xviii. 1, % '^Be- 
cause that Claudius had commanded all Jews to 
depart from Rome." 

Suet. Claud, c. xxv. Judasos, impulsore Chresto 
assidue tumultuantes, Roma expuHt." 

XXXIX. [p. 664.] Acts v. 37. After this 
man, rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the 
taxing, and drew away much people after him.'' 

. Jos. de Bel!. 1. vii. He {viz. the person, who 
in another place is called by losephus, Judas the 
Galilean, or Judas of Galilee) persuaded not a 
few not to enrol themselves, when Cyrenius the 
censor was sent into Judea." 

XL. [p. 942.] Acts xxi. 38. " Art not thou 
that Egyptian which, before these days, madest an 
uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four 
thousand men, that were murderers?" 

Jos. de Bell. 1. ii. c. 13. sect. 5. "But the 
Egyptian false prophet brought a yet heavier dis- 
aster upon the Jews ; for this impostor, coming 
into the country, and gaining the reputation of a 
prophet, gathered together thirty thousand men, 
who were deceived by him. Having brought them 
round out of the wilderness, up to the Mount of 
Olives, he intended from thence to make his attack 
upon Jerusalem ; but Felix coming suddenly upon 
hinvwiththe Roman soldiers, prevented the attack. 
A great number, or (as it should rather be rendered) 
the greatest part of those that were with him, \^ ere 
either slain or taken prisoners." 

\n these two passages, the designation of the im- 
postor, an Egyptian," without his proper name; 

the wilderness;" his escape, though his followers 
were destroyed ; the time of the transaction, in the 
presidentship of Felix, which could not be any long 
time before the words in Luke are supposed to have 

y 



522 



THE EVIDENCES 



been spoken, are circumstances of close corres- 
pondency. There is one, and only one point of 
disagreement, and that is, in the number of hm 
followers, which in the Acts are called four thou- 
sand, — and by Josephus thirty thousand ; but, be- 
side that the names of numbers, more than any 
other words, are liable to the errors of transcribers, 
we are, in the present instance, under the less con- 
cern to reconcile the evangelist with Josephus, as 
Josephus is not in this point consistent with him* 
self ; for whereas, in the passage here quoted, he 
calls the number thirty thousand, and tells us that 
the greatest part, or a great number (according as 
his words are rendered) of those that were with 
him, were destroyed, — in his Antiquities, he repre- 
sents four hundred to have been killed upon this 
occasion, and two hundred taken prisoners * : which 
certainly was not the greatest paj^t, nor a great 
part, nor a great number,'' out of thirty thousand. 

It is probable also, thatLysiasand Josephus spoke 
of the expedition in its different stages : Lysias, of 
those who followed the Egyptian out of Jerusalem ; 
Josephus, of all who were collected about him 
afterwards, from different quarters. 

XLI. (Lardner's Jewish and Heathen Testimo- 
nies, vol. iii. p. 21.) Acts xvii. 22. Then Paul 
stood in the midst of Mars-hill, and said. Ye men 
of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too 
superstitious ; for, as I passed by and beheld your 
devotions, / found an altar with this inscription^ 
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD,— Whom iheve-^ 
fore ye ignorantiy worship, him declare I unto you." 

Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about the year 
^10, in his history of Epimenides, who is supposed 



* Lib. XX, c. 7. sect 6. 



OF CHRiSTlAXTTY. 



323 



to have flourished nearly six hundred years before 
Christ, relates of him the following story : that, 
being invited to Athens for the purpose, he deli- 
vered the city from a pestilence in this manner : — 
" Taking several sheep, some black, others white, 
he had them up to the Areopagus, and then let 
them go where they would, and gave orders to 
those who followed them, wherever any of them 
should lie down, to sacrifice it to the god to whom it 
belonged ; and so the plague ceased. — Hence," 
says the historian, it has com.e to pass, that, to 
this present time) may be foimd in the boroughs of 
the Athenians anonymous altars, a memorial of 
the expiation then made*." These altars, it may 
be presumed, were called anonymous, because there 
was not the name of any particular deity inscribed 
upon them. 

Pausanius, who wrote before the end of the se- 
cond century, in his description of Athens, having 
mentioned an altar of Jupiter Olympus, adds, " And 
oiigh unto it is an altar of unknown gods f And 
in another place, speaks of altars of gods, called 
Unknown 

PJiilostratus, ^^A^o wrote in the beginning of the 
third century, records it as an observation of Apol- 
lonius Tyanieus, That it was wise to speak well of 
all the gods, especially at Athens, where altars of 
unknown demons xvere erected\r 

The author of the dialogue Philopatris, by many 
supposed to have been Lucien, who wrote about 
the year 170, by others some anonymous Heathen 
writer of the fourth century, makes Critias swear 
by the unknown god of Athens ; and, near the end 
of the dialogue, has these words : — ■ " But let us 
fiud out the unknown God of Athens ; and, stretch- 



* In Epimenide, I, i. seg. 110. + Pans. 1. 5. p. 412. 

: Paus. I. i. p> 4. § Philos. Apoil, Tyan. 1. \i. c 8. 

Y O 



THE EVIDENCES 



ing our hands to Heaven, offer to him our praise^' 
and thanksgivings 

Ihis is a very curious and a very important coin- 
cidence. It appears beyond controversy, that altars 
tv'ith this inscription were existing at Athens at the 
time when Saint Paul is alleged to have been there. 
It seems also (which is very worthy of observation) 
that this inscription was peculiar to the Athenians. 
There is no evidence that there were altars inscribed 

To the unknown God" in any other countr}^ Sup- 
posing the history of St. Paul to have been a fable, 
how is it possible that such a writer as the author of 
the Acts of the Apostles was, should hit upon a cir- 
cumstance so extraordinary, and introduce it by an 
allusion so suitable to St. Pauls office and character.^ 



The examples here collected will he sufficient, I 
hope, to satisfy us, that the writers of the Christian 
history knew something of what they w-ere writing 
about. The argument is also strengthened by the 
following considerations :— 

I. That these agreements appear, not only in ar- 
ticles of public history, but sometimes in minute, 
recondite, and very peculiar circumstances, in 
which, of all others, a forger is most likely to have 
been found tripping. 

n. That the destruction of Jerusalem, which 
took place forty years after the commencement of 
the Christian institution, produced such a change 
in the state of the country and the condition of the 
Jews, that a writer who w^as unacquainted with the 
circumstances of the nation before that event, 
would find it difficult to avoid mistakes, in endea- 



* Lrif ian. in PJiilop. torn. ii. Gicev. p. 767, 780. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



3^5 



vouring to give detailed accounts of transactions 
connected with those circumstances, forasmuch as 
he could no lotiger have a living exemplar to copy 
from. 

III. That there appears, in the writers of the 
New Testament, a knowledge of the affairs of those 
times, which we do not find in authors of late ages. 
In particular, " many of the Christian writers of the 
second and third centuries, and of the following 
ages, had false notions concerning the state of 
Judea, between the nativity of Jesus and the de- 
struction of Jerusalem Therefore tkei/ could 
not have composed our histories. 

Amidst so many conformities, we are not to 
wonder that we meet with some difficulties. The 
principal of these I will put down, together with the 
solutions which they have received ; but in doing 
this, I must be contented with a brevity, better 
suited to the limits of my volume than to the nature 
of a controversial aro;ument. For the historical 
proofs of my assertions, and for the Greek criti- 
cisms upon which some of them are founded, I 
refer the reader to the second volume of the first 
part of Dr. Lardner s large work. 

I. The taxing during which Jesus was born, was 
Jirst made, as we read, according to our translation, 
in Saint Luke, " whilst Cy renins was governor of 
Syria f." Now it turns out that Cyreiiius was not 
governor of Syria until twelve, or, at the soonest, 
ten years after the birth of Christ ; and that a tax- 
ing, census, or assessment, was made in Judea in 
the beginning of his government. The charge, 
therefore, brought against the evangeHst is, that, 
intending to refer to this taxing, he has misplaced 
the date of it, by an error of ten or twelve years. 



f I^ardner, part i. vol. ii. p. 960, 



t Chap. ii. ver. 2. 



326 



THE EVIDENCES 



The answer to the accusation is found in hi^ 
using the word Jirst : — "And this taxing \\2is first 
made for, according to the mistake imputed to 
the evangelist, this word could have no signification 
whatever ; it could have had no place in his nar- 
rative ; because, let it relate to what it will, taxing, 
census, enrolment, or assessment, it imports that 
the writer had more than one of these in contem- 
plation. It acquits him therefore of the charge; it-- 
is inconsistent with the supposition of his knowing 
only of the taxing in the beginning of Cyrenius's 
government ; and if the evangelist knew (which this 
word proves that he did) of some other taxing be- 
side that, it is too much, for the sake of convincmg 
him of a mistake, to lay it down as certain that he 
intended to refer to that. 

The sentence in Saint Luke may be construed 
thus: — '^This was the first assessment (or enrol- 
ment) of Cyrenius, governor of Syria * ;" the 
words " Governor of Syria" being used after the 
name of Cyrenius as his addition or tide ; and this 
title belonging to him at the time of writing the ac- 
count, was naturally enough subjoined to his name, 
though acquired after the transaction which the ac- 
count describes. A modern writer, who was not 
very exact in the choice of his expressions, in relat- 
ing the affau^s of the East Indies, might easily say 
that such a thing was done by Governor Hastings ; 
though in truth, the thing had been done by him 
beiore his advancement to the station from which 
he received the name of Governor; and this, as we 



* If the word which wq render first, be rendered before, which it 
has been strongly contended that the Greek idiom allows of, tlie 
whole difficuliy vanishes ; for then the passage would be, — " Now 
this taxing was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria 
which corresponds with the chronolog'y ; but I rather choose to 
argue, that, however the word first be rendered, to give it a meaning- 
at all, it militates with the objection. In this I think there can be 
no mistake. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



327 



contend, is precisely the inaccuracy which has pro- 
duced the difficulty in Saint Luke. 

At any rate, it appears from the form of the ex- 
pression, that he had two taxings or enrohnents in 
contemplation ; and if Cyrenius had been sent upon 
this business into Judea. before he became governor 
of Syria (against which supposition there is no 
proof, but rather external evidence of an enrolment 
going on about this time under some person or. 
other*) then the census on all hands acknowledged 
to have been made by him in the beginning of his 
government, would form a second, so as to occasion 
tlie other to be called the first, 

II. Another chronological objection arises upon 
a date assigned in the beginning of the third chapter 
of Saint Luke |. ^' Now in the fifteenth year of 
the reign of Tiberius Cassar, — Jesus began to be 
about thirty years of age for, supposing Jesus to 
have been born, as Saint Matthew, and Saint Luke 
also himself relates, in the time of Herod, he must, 
according to the dates given in Josephus, and by the 
Roman historians, have been at least thirty-one 
years of age in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. If he 
Mas born as Saint IMatthevv's narrative intimates, 
one or two years before Herod s death, he would 
have been thirty-two or thirty-three years old at that 
time. 

This is the difficulty ; the solution turns upon an 
alteration in the construction of the Greek. Saint 



* Josephus (Ant. xvii. c. 2. sect. 6.) has this remarkable passag-e: 
" When therefore the \N hole Jewish nation took an oath to be faith- 
ful to Caesar, and the interests of the king." This transaction 
corresponds in the course of the history with the time of Christ's birth. 
What is called a census, and which we render taxi/ig, was deliver ng 
upon oath an account of their property. This might he accompanied 
■with an oath of fidelity, or might be mistaken by Josephus tbi it. 

t Larduer, part. i. vol. ii. p. 768. 



S28 



THE EVIDENCES 



Luke's words in the original are allowed, by the ge- 
neral opinion of learned men, to signify, not that 
Jesus began to be about thirty years of age," but 
" that he ^^ as about thirty years when he began his 
ininistry." This construction being admitted, the 
adverb about gives us all the latitude we want, and 
more especially when applied, as it is in the pre- 
sent instance, to a decimal number ; for such num- 
bers, even without this qualifying addition, are often 
used in a laxer sense than is here contended for*. 

III. Acts V. 36. " For before these days rose 
up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody ; to 
whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined 
themselves ; who was slain ; and all, as many as 
obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nought." 

Josephus has preserved the account of an im- 
postor, of the name of Theudas, who created some 
disturbances, and was slain ; but, according to the 
date assigned to this man's appearance (in which, 
however, it is very possible that Josephus may have 
been mistaken t) it must have been at the least seven 
years after GamaUers speech, of which this text is a 
part, was delivered. It has been replied to the ob- 
jection J, that there might be two impostors of this 
name ; and it has been observed, in order to give a 
general probability to the solution, that the same 
thing appears to have happened in other instances of 
the same kind. It is proved from Josephus, that there 



* Livy, speaking of the peace which llie conduct of Romnlushad 
prociued to the state, during the whole reign of his successor (Numa) 
has these words * : — " Ab illo enim profcctis viribus datis lantum 
valuit, ut, in quadraginta deinde annos, tutam pacera haberet ;'' yet 
aftervvards in the same chapter, " Romulus/' he says, " septem et 
trigintrt reguavit annos. Numa tres et qnadraginta." 

t jMici>aelis's Intioduction to the I^ew Testament (Marsh s 
Translation) vol. i, p. 61. 

-t Lardaer, part i, voi. ii. p. 922. 

* Liv- Hist. c. 1. sect. 1^. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



were not fewer than four persons of the name of 
Simon within forty years, and not fewer than three 
of the name of Judas within ten years, who were 
all leaders of insurrections ; and it is likewise re- 
corded by this historian, That, upon the death of 
Herod the Great (which agrees very w^ell with the 
time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, 
and his manner of stating that time, ^' before these 
days") there were innumerable disturbances in 
Judea Archbishop Usher was of opinion, That 
one of the three Judases above mentioned was Ga- 
maliePs Theudas f ; and that, with a less variation 
of the name than we actually find in tlie (rospels, 
where one of the twelve apostles is called by Luke, 
Judas and by Mark, Thacldeus J. 0\ igen, however 
he came at his information, appears to have believed 
that there was an impostor of the name of Theudas 
before the nativity of Christ §. 

IV. Matt, xxiii. 34. " Wherefore, behold, I 
send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; 
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and 
some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, 
and persecute them from city to city: that upon 
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon 
the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto 
the blood oi Zacharias, son of Barachias, zvhomye 
slew betxveeii the temple and the altar.'' 

There is a Zacharias, whose death is related in 
the second book of Chronicles, in a manner which 
perfectly supports our Saviour's allusion || ; but this 
Zacharias was the son of Jehoiada, 



* Ant. 1. xvii. c. 12. sect. 4. 
t Annals, p. 797. 
t Luke vi. 16. Mark iii. IS. 
§ Oiig. coiit Cels. p. 44, 

II " And the Spirit of God came upon Zccliai iab, the son of .Te- 
Iioiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said luit© 



530 



THE EVIDENCES 



There is also Zacharias the prophet, who was 
the son of Barachiah, and is so described in the 
superscription of his prophecy; but of whose deadi 
we have no account. 

I have litde doubt but that the first Zacharias 
was the person spoken of by our Saviour ; and that 
the name of the father has been since added or 
changed by some one, who took it from the title 
of the prophecy, which happened to be better 
known to him than the history in the Chronicles. 

There is likewise a Zacharias, the son of Baruch, 
related by Josephus to have been slain in the tem- 
ple a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem. 
It has been insinuated, that the words put into our 
Saviour s mouth contain a reference to this trans- 
action ; and were composed by some writer, who 
either confounded the time of the transaction with 
our Saviours age, or inadvertently overlooked the 
anachronism. 

Now, suppose it to have been so ; suppose these 
words to have been suggested by the transaction 
related in Josephus, and to have been falsely as- 
cribed to Christ ; and observe what extraordinary 
coincidences (accidentally, as it must in that case 
have been) attend the forger's mistake. 

First, That we have a Zacharias in the book of 
Chronicles, whose death, and the manner of it, 
corresponds with the allusion. 

Secondly, That although the name of this per- 
son's father be erroneously put down in the Gos- 
pel, yet we have a way of accounting for the error, 
by showing another Zacharias in the Jewish Scrip- 



them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the 
Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, 
he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against iiim, and 
stoned him with stones^ at the commandment of the king, in the court of 
the house of the Lord:' 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 2L 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



531 



tures, much better known than the former, whose 
pationymic was actually that which appears in the 
text. 

Every one who thinks upon the subject, will 
find these to be circumstances which could not have 
met together in a mistake which did not proceed 
from the circumstances themselves. 



I have mentioned, I think, all the difficulties of 
this kind. They are few ; some of them admit of 
a clear, others of a probable solution. The reader 
will compare them with the number, the variety, 
the closeness, and the satisfactoriness, of the in- 
stances which are to be set against ihem ; and he 
will remember the scantiness, in many cases, of our 
intelligence, and that difficulties always attend im- 
perfect information. 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER VII. 

Undesigned Coincidences, 

ETWEEN the letters which bear the name of 
Saint Paul in our collection, and his history in the 
Acts of the Apostles, there exist many notes of cor- 
respondency. The simple perusal of the writings 
is sufficient to prove, that neither the history was 
taken from the letters, nor the letters from the his- 
tory; and the imdesignedness of the agreements 
(which undesignedness is gathered from their la- 
tenc3% their minuteness, their obhquity, the suitable- 
ness of the circumstances in which they consist, to 
the places in which those circumstances occur, and 
the circuitous references by which they are traced 
out) demonstrates that they have not been pro- 
duced by meditation, or by any fraudulent contri- 
vance ; but coincidences, from w^jich tliese causes 
are excluded, and which are too close and numer^ 
ous to be accounted for by accidental occurrences 
of fiction, must necessarily have truth for their 
foundation. 

This argument appeared to my mind of so mucFi 
value (especially for its assuming nothing beside 
the existence of the books) that I have pursued it 
through Saint Paul's thirteen epistles, in a work 
published by me four years ago, under the title of 
Horee Paulin^e. I am sensible how feebly any ar- 
gument, which depends upon an induction of parti- 
culars, is represented, without examples. On 
which account, I wished to have abridged my own 
volume, in the manner in which I have treated 
J)ro Lardner s in the preceding chapter ; but, upou 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



333 



making the attempt, I did not find it in my power 
to render the articles intelligible by fewer words 
than I have there used. I must be content, there- 
fore, to refer the reader to the work itself ; and I 
would particularly invite his attention to the obser- 
vations which are made in it upon the first three 
epistles. I persuade myself that he will find the 
proofs, both of agreement and undesignedness, sup- 
plied by these epistles, sufficient to support the 
conclusion which is there maintained, in favour 
both of the genuineness of the writings, and the 
truth of the narrative. 

It remains only, in this place, to point out how 
the argument bears upon the general question of 
the Christian history. 

First, Saint Paul in these letters affirms, in un- 
equivocal terms, his own performance of miracles, 
and, what ought particularly to be reuiembered, 
That jniracles were the signs of an apostle *. If 
tlris testimony come from Saint Pauls own hand, 
it is valuable ; and that it does so, the argument 
before us fixes in my mind a firm assurance. 

Secondly, It shovv^s that the series of action, re- 
presented in the Epistles of Saint Paul, was real ; 
which alone lays a foundation for the proposition 
which forms the subject of the First Part of our 
present Work, *viz. That the original witnesses of 
the Christian history devoted themselves to lives of 
toil, suffering, and danger, in consequence of their 
belief of the truth of that history, and for the sake 
of communicating the knowledge of it to others. 

Thirdly, It proves that Luke, or whoever was the 
author of the Acts of the Apostles (for the argu- 
ment does not depend upon the name of the author, 
though I know no reason for questioning it) was 
well acquainted with Saint Paul's history ; and that 



^ RoDi, XT, 18, 19. 2 Cor. xii 12. 



534 



THE EVIDENCES 



he probably was what he professes himself to be, 
a companion of Saini Paul's travels ; which, if true, 
establishes, in a considerable degree, the credit even 
of his gospel ; because it shews that the writer, 
from his time, situation, and connections, possessed 
opportunities of informing himself truly concerning 
the transactions which he relates. I have little 
difficulty in applying to the Gospel of Saint Luke 
what is proved concerning the Acts of the Apostles, 
considering them as two parts of the same history ; 
for, though there are instances of second ipSLVts bemg 
forgeries, I know none where the second part is 
genuine, and the first not so. 

I will only observe, as a sequel of the argument, 
though not noticed in my work, the remarkable 
similitude between the style of Saint John's Gospel 
and of Saint John's First Epistle. The style of 
Saint John's is not at all the style of Saint Paul's 
Epistles, though both are very singular ; nor is it 
the style of Saint James's or of Saint Peter's Epis- 
tle ; but it bears a resemblance to the style of the 
Gospel inscribed with Saint John's name, so far as 
that resemblance can be expected to appear which 
is not in simple narrative, so much as in reflections, 
and in the representation of discourses. Writings 
so circumstanced, prove themselves and one an- 
other to be genuine. This correspondency is the 
more valuable, as the epistle itself asserts, in Saint 
John's manner indeed, but in terms sufficiently ex- 
plicit, the writer's personal knowledge of Christ's 
history: — That which was from the beginning, 
which we have heard, which we have seen with our 
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands 
have handled, of the word of life ; that which we 
have seen and heard, declare we unto you*." Who 
would not desire, — who perceives not the value of 
an account, delivered by a writer so well informed 
as this ? 



* Chap. i. 1, 3. 



OF CHUISTIANITY. 



S5S 



CHAPTER Vlir. 
Of the History of the Resurrection, 

T HE History of the Resurrection of Christ is a 
part of the evidence of Christianity ; but I do not 
know whether the proper strength of this passage 
of the Christian history, or wherein its peculiar 
value, as a head of evidence consists, be generally 
understood. It is not that, as a miracle, the resur- 
rection ought to be accounted a more decisive proof 
of supernatural agency than other miracles are : it 
is not that, as it stands in the Gospels, it is better 
attested than some others ; it is not, for either of 
these reasons, that more weight belongs to it than 
to other miracles, but for the following, viz. That it 
is completely certain that the apostles of Christ, 
and the first teachers of Christianity, asserted the 
fact; — and this would have been certain, if tlie 
Four Gospels had been lost, or never written. 
Every piece of Scripture recognizes the resurrec- 
tion ; — every epistle of every apostle, every author 
-contemporary with the apostles, of the age imme- 
diately succeeding the apostles, every writing from 
that age to the present, genuine or spurious, on the 
side of Christianity or against it, concur in repre- 
sentingf the resurrection of Christ as an article of his 
history, received without doubt or disagreement by 
all who called themselves Chistians, as alleged from 
the beginning by the propagators of the institution, 
and alleged as the centre of their testimony. No- 
thing, I apprehend, which a man does not himself 
see or hear, can be more certain to him than this 
point. I do not mean that nothing can be more 
certain than that Christ rose from the dead ; but 
that nothing can be more certain than that his 



536 



THE EVIDENCES 



apostles, end the first teachers of Christianity, gave 
out that he did so. In the other parts of the Gos- 
pel - narrative, a question may be made, Whether 
the things related of Christ be the very things which 
'the apostles and first teachers of the religion deli- 
vered concerning him ? And this question depends 
a good deal upon the evidence we possess of the 
genuineness, or rather, perhaps, of the antiquity, 
credit, and reception of the books. On the subject 
of the resurrection, no such discussion is necessary, 
because no such doubt can be entertained. The 
only points which can enter into our consideration 
are, Whether the apostles knowingly published a 
falsehood ? or Whether they were themselves de- 
ceived? — whether either of these suppositions be 
possible. The first, I think, is pretty generally 
given up. The nature of the undertakingj and of 
the men ; the extreme unlikelihood that such men 
should enga2;e in such a measure as a scheme ; their 
personal toils, and dangers, and sufferings, in the 
cause ; their appropriation of their whole time to 
the object; the warm and seemingly unaffected 
zeal and earnestness with which they profess their 
sincerity, exempt their memory from the suspicion 
of imposture. 

The solution more deserving of notice is, that 
which would resolve the conduct of the apostles 
into enthusiasm ; which would class the evidence of 
Christ's resurrection with the numerous stories that 
are extant of the apparitions of dead men. 

There are circumstances iu the narrative, as it is 
preserved in our histories, w^hich destroy this com- 
parison entirely, lit was not one person, but many, 
who saw him ; they saw him not only separately, 
but together, — not only by night, but by day, — - 
not at a distance, but near, — not once, but seve- 
ral times ; they not only saw him, but touched him, 
conversed with him, ate with him, examined his 



01^ bilRISTlANiTY. 



SS7 



persbti lb satisfy their doubts. These particulars 
are decisive ; but they stand, I do admit, upon the 
credit of our records. I would answer, therefore, 
the insinuation of enthusiasm, by a circumstance 
which arises out of the nature of the thirlg ; and the 
reality of which nlu3t be confessed by dll who allow, 
what I believe is not denied, that the resurrection 
of Christ, whether truie or false, was asserted by his 
disciples from the beginning ; and that circumstancd 
is the non-production Of the dead bod;^ . It is re- 
lated in the history, what indeed the story of the 
resurrection necessarily implies, that th6 corpse was 
ihissing out of the sepulchre ; it is related also in 
the history, that the Jews reported that the fol« 
lowers of Christ had stolen it away * ; and this ac- 
count, though loaded with great improbabilities, 
such as the situation of the disciples, their fears for 
their own safety at the tinle, the unlikelihood of 
their expecting to succeed, the difficulty of their 
success f , and the inevitable consequence of detec- 
tion and failure, was, nevertheless, the most cre« 
dible account that could be given of the mattei' ; but 
it proceeds entirely upon the supposition of fraud, 
as all the old objections did. What account can 
be given of the bodi/, upon the supposition of en- 



* " And this saying," Saint Matthew writes, " is commonly re- 
ported ambngst the Jews until this day," (xxviil. 15.) ^Jthe evange» 
list may be thought good authority as to this point, e\'en by these w ho 
do not admit his evidence in every other point ; and Uiis point is 
siifficient to prove that the body was missing;. 

It has also been rightly, I think, observed hf Pr. 'Townshend 
(Disc, on the Res, p. 126.) that the story of the guards carried collu- 
sion upoii the face of it: — " His disciples came by night, and stole 
him awEty, while we slept." Mbn in their circumstances would not 
have made such an acknowledgement of their negligence, without 
previous assiiraiices of protection and impunity. 

t Especially at the full moon, the city full of people, many pro- 
bably passing the whole night, as Jesus and his disciples had done, 
in the opeti air, the sepulchre so near the city as to be now enclosed 
within (ho walls.'' Priestly on the Riesiirr. p. 24, 



THE- KVIPENCE^ 



thusm^m? It is impossible our Lord's followers coold 
believe that he was risen from the dead, if his corpse 
was lying before them. No enthusiasm ever reach- 
ed to such a pitch of extravagance as that ; a spirit 
may bean illusion; a body is a real thing, an object 
of sense, in which there can be no mistake. Ail 
accounts of spectres leave the body in the grave ; 
and, although the body of Christ might be removed, 
by fraud, and for the purposes of fraud, yet, w ith- 
out any such intention, and by sincere but deluded 
men (which is the representation of the apostolic 
character we are now examining) no such attempt 
could be made. The presence and the absence of 
the dead body are alike inconsistent with the hypo- 
thesis of enthusiasm ; for, if present^ it must have 
cured their enthusiasm at once; if absent, fraud,- 
not enthusiasm, must have carried it away. 

But further, If we admit, upon the concurrent 
testimony of all the histories, so much of the account 
as states that the religion of Jesus was set up at 
Jerusalem, and set up with asserting in the very 
place in which he had been buried, and a, few days 
after he had been buried, his resurrection out of 
the grave, it is evident that, if his body could have 
been found, the Jews vvould have produced it, as 
the shortest and completest answer possible to the 
ivhole story. The attempt of the apostles could not 
have survived this refutation a moment. If we also 
admit, upon the authority of Saint Matthew, that 
the Jews were advertised of the expectation of 
Christ's followers, and that they had taken due pre- 
caution in consequence of this notice, and that the 
body was in marked and public custody, the obser- 
vation receives more force still ; for, notwithstand- 
ing their precaution, and although thus prepared 
and forewarned, when the story of the resurrection 
of Christ came forth, as it immediately did ; when 
it was publicly asserted by his disciples, and made 



OF CHRISTTA^^ITY. 



SS9 



the ground and basis of their preaching in his name, 
and collecting followers to his rehgion, the Jews 
had not the body to produce ; b'lt were obliged to 
meet the testimony of the apostles by an answer, 
not containing indeed any impossibility in itself, but 
absolutely inconsistent with the supposition of their 
integrity; that is, in other words, inconbistent with 
the supposition which would resolve their conduct 
into enthusi&sni. 



z £ 



THE EVIDENCE^ 



CHAPtER IX. 

The Propagation of Christianity^ 

this argument, the first consideratioft is tlife 
fact ; in what degree, within what time, and to what 
extent, Christianity actually was propagated. 

The accounts of the matter, which can be collect- 
ed from our books, are as follow : — A fm days 
after Christ's disappearance out of the world, we 
find an assembly of disciples at Jerusalem, to 
the number of " about one hundred and twenty * f 
which hundred and twenty were, probably, a little 
association of believers, met together, not merely as 
believers in Christ, but as personally connected with 
the apostles, and with one another. Whatever was 
the number of believers then in Jerusalem, w^e have 
no reason to be surprised that so small a company 
should assemble ; for there is no proof that the fol-^ 
lowers of Christ were yet formed into a society ; 
that the society was reduced into any order ; that it 
was at this time even understood that a new religion 
(in the sense which that term conveys to us) was to 
be set up in the world, or how the professors of 
that religion were to be distinguished from the rest 
of mankind. The death of Christ had left, we mav 
suppose, the generality of his disciples in great 
doubt, both as to what they were to do, and con- 
cerning what was to follow. 

This meeting was held, as we have already said, 
a few days after Christ's ascension ; for, ten days 
after that event was the day of Pentecost, when, as 
our history relates f, upon a signal display of Divine 
agency attending the persons of the apostles, there 
were added to the society " about three thousand 



* Acts i. 15. 



^ Acts ii, 1. 



eXF CHRISTIANITY. 341 

souls *." But here, it is not, I think, to be taken, 
4hat these three thousand were all converted by this 
single miracle ; but rather that many, who before 
were believers in Christ, became now professors of 
Christianity ; that is to say, when they found that a 
religion was to be established, a society formed and 
set up in the name of Christ, governed by his laws, 
avowing their belief in his mission, united amongst 
themselves, and separated from the rest of the 
world by visible distinctions ; in pursuance of their 
former conviction, and by virtue of what they had 
heard and seen and known of Christ's history, they 
publicly became members of it. 

We read in the fourth f chapter of the Acts, that, 
soon after this, ^' the number of the men," i. e. of 
the society openly professing their belief in Christ, 

was about five thousand." So that here is an in- 
crease of two thousand within a very short time ; 
and it is probable that there w^ere many, both now 
and afterwards, who, although they believed in 
Chri&t, -did not think it necessary to join themselves 
to this society; or who waited to see what was 
likely to become of it. Gamaliel, whose advice to 
the Jewish council is recorded Acts v. 34, appears 
to have been of this description ; perhaps Nicode- 
jnus, and perhaps also Joseph of Arimathea. This 
class of men, their character and their rank, are like- 
wise pointed out by St. John, in the twelfth chapter 
of his Gospel : — " Nevertheless, among the chief 
rulers also, many believed on him ; but because of 
the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they 
should be put out of the synagogue, for they loved 
the praise of men more than the praise of God." — 
Persons such as these might admit the miracles of 
Christ, without being immediately convinced that 



* Acts ii. 4U 



f Verse 4, 



342 



THE EVIDENCES 



they were under obligation to make a public profes- 
sion of Christianity at the risk of all that was dear 
to them in life, and even of nfe itself*. 

Christianity, however, proceeded to increase in 
Jerusalem, by a progress equally rapid with its 
first success ; for in the nextf chapter of our his- 
tory, we read that believers were the more added 
to the Lord ; multitudes both of men and women." 
And thiS enlaro[emeut of the new society appears in 
the first verse ot the succeeding chapter, wherein 
we are told, that " When the number of the dis* 
ciples was 7nultipUed, there arose a murmuring of 
the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their 
widows were neglected J:" and, afterwards, in the 
same chapter, it is declared expressly that th^ 
number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem 
greatly, and that a great company of the priests were 
obedient to the faith." 

This I call the first period in the propagation of 
Christianity. It commences with the ascension of 
Christ, and extends, as may be collected from in- 
cidental notes of time§, to something more than 



* " Beside those who professed, and those who rejected and op- 
posed Clirjsliani1y,t}iere were, in all probability, multitude.- between 
lioth, neither perfect Christians, nor yet unbelievers. They had a 
favourable opinion of the Gospel; but worldly considerations made 
them unwilling- to own it. Tiiere were mauy circumstances which 
inclined them to think that Christianity m as a Divine revelation, 
but there were many inconveniences which attended the open pro- 
fession of it; and they could not tind in themselves courage enough 
to bear them, to disoblige their friends and family, to ruin their fur- 
tunes, to lose their reputation, their liberty, and their life, for the 
sake of the new religion. Tiierefore they were willing to hope, that 
if they endeavoured to observe the great precepts of nmrahty, which 
Christ had represented as the principal part, the sum and substance, 
of religion ; if they thougiit honourably of the Gosj)el ; if they offer- 
ed no iiijury to the Christians ; if they did them all the services that 
they could safely perform, they were willing to hope that God 
would accept this, and that He would excuse and forgive the rest." 
Jcrtbi's Dis. on the Christ. Rel. p. 91- ed. 4. 
. .+ Acts V. 14. X Chap. vi. 1. 

§ Yide Pearson's Antiq. I. xviii. c. 7- Benson's Hist, of Christ, 
book i. p. 14a. 



OF CHlllSTIAXlTY. 



343 



one year after that event ; during which term the 
preaching of Christianity, so far as our documents 
inform us, was confined to the single city of Jeru- 
salem : — and how did it succeed there ? The first 
assembly which we meet with of Christ's disciples, 
and that a few days after his removal from th« 
world, consisted of one hundred and twenty/' — 
About a week after this, three thousand were 
added in one day;" and the number of Christians 
publicly baptized, and publicly associating together, 
was very soon increased to *' five thousand." Mul- 
titudes, both of men and women, continued to be 
added ; " disciples multiplied greatly," and " many 
of the Jewish priesthood, as well as others, became 
obedient to the faith and this within a space of 
less than two years from the commencement of the 
institution. 

By reason of a persecution raised against the 
church of Jerusalem, the converts were driven from 
that city, and dispersed throughout the regions of 
Judea and Samaria*. Wherever they came, they 
brought their religion with them ; for, our historian 
informs us f, that " they that were scattered abroad, 
M-ent everywhere preaching the word," The effect 
of this preaching comes afterwards to be noticed, 
where the historian is led, in the course of his nar- 
rative to observe, that then {i. e. about three years;}: 
posterior to this) " the churches had rest through- 
out all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were 
edified, and, walking in the fear of the Lord, and, 
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." 
This w^as the work of the second period, which 
comprises about four years. 

Hitherto the j)reaching of the Gospel had been 
confined to Jews, to Jeuish proselytes, and to Sa-^ 
maritans ; and I cannot forbear from setting down, 



* Acts 1. + Verso 4' 



X Benson, book i- p. 20T. 



344 THE EVIDENCES 

in this place an observation of Mr. Bryant, v/hick 
appears to me to hp perfectly well-founded ; — 

The JiBws still remain; but how seldom is it that 
we can make ^ single proselyte 1 There is reason to 
think that there werp ipore converted by the apostles 
in oqe day, than havp sincp been won oyer ir^ the 
last thousand years 

Jt was not yet j^nown to the apostleg that they 
were at libprty to propose the religion to mankind 
at large. That mystery ^ as Saint Paul calls it f , 
snd as it then was, was revealed tq Peter by an es- 
pecial miracle. It appears to bave been J about 
seven years after Christ's ascension that the Gospel 
was preached to the Gentiles of Cesarea. A year 
after this, a great multitude of Gentiles were con- 
vprted at Antioch in Syria. The expressions eniT 
ployed by the historian are these: — A great, 
number believed, and turned to the Lord " much 
people was added unto the Lord " the apostles 
Barpabai^ and Paul taught nmch people Upon 
Herod's death, which happened in the next year |j, 
it is observed that " the word of God grew and 
multiplied Tbree ypars from this time, upon 
the preaching of Paul at Iconiuni, the metropolis 
of Lycaonia, ^* a gre^t multitude both of Jews, 
and Greeks believed**;" and i^fterwards, in the 
course of this very progress, he is represented as 

making many disciples" at Derbe, ^ principal 
city in the same district. Three years ff after 
this, which brings us to sixteen after the ascen- 
sion, the apostles wrote a public letter from Jeru- 
salem to the Gentile converts in Antioch, Syria^ 
and Cilicia, Avith which letter Paul travelled 



* Bryant on the Trutli pf the Christ. ReJig. p. 112. 
+ Eph. iii. 3—6. J Benson, book ii. p. 23G. 

§ Acts xi. 21, 24, 26. j| Benson, book ii. p. 28a. 

1[ Actsxii.24. ** lb- xiv. 1. 

tt Benson's History of Christ; book iii. p, 50> 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



345 



through these countries, and found the churches 
" estabhshed in the faith, and increasing in number 
daily*." From Asia the apostle proceeded into 
Greece, where, soon after his arrival in Macedonia, 
we find him at Thessalonica ; in which city " some 
of the Jews believed, and of the devout Greeks a 
great multitude f We met also here with an acci- 
dental hint of the general progress of the Christian 
mission, in the exclamation of the tumultuous Jews 
of Thessalonica, that they, who had turned the 
world upside down, were come thither also J." At 
Berea, the next city at which Saint Paul arrives, the 
historian, who was present, informs us " That wz^^zjr 
of the Jew3 beheved The next year and a half 
of Saint Paul's ministry was spent at Corinth. Of 
his success in that cit}^, we receive the following in- 
timations : — " That many of the Corinthians be- 
lieved and were baptized ;" and " that it was re- 
vealed to the apostles by Christ, that he had much 
people in that city||." Within less than a year 
after his departure from Corinth, and twenty-five 
years ^ after the ascension, Saint Paul fixed his sta- 
tion at Ephesus tor the space of two years and 
something more. The effect of his ministry in that 
city and neighbourhood drew from the historian a 
reflection, how " mightily grew the word of God, 
and prevailed f f-" ^"^^ ^^^^ conclusion of this 
period, we find Demetrius at the head of a party, 
who were alarmed by the progress of the religion, 
complaining, that " not only at Ephesus, but also 
throughout all Asia (f. e. the province of Lydia, and 
the country adjoining to Ephesus) this Paul hath 
persuaded and turried ^way much people ;}: J." — 
Beside these accounts, there occurs incidentally, 



* Acts xvi. 5. T Chap. x\ii 4. J Verse 6. § Terse 12, 
j! Chap, xviii. 8 — 10. ^ Benson, book iii. p. 160. 

Act« 10. it lb. six. 20. X\ lb. verse 26, 



346 



THE EVIDENCES 



ixienlion of converts at Rome, Alexandria, Athens, 
Cyprus, Cyrene, Macedonia, Philippi. 

This is the third period in the propagation of 
.Christianity, setting off in the seventh year after the 
Ascension, and ending at the twenty-eighth. Now, 
lay these three periods together, and observe how 
•the progress of the rehgion by these accounts is re- 
presented. The institution, which properly began 
only after its author's removal from the world, be- 
fore the end of thirty years, had spread itself through 
Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, almost all the numer- 
ous districts of Lesser Asia, through Greece, and 
the islands of the iEgean Sea, the sea-coast of Af- 
rica, and had extended itself to Rome, and into 
Italy. At Antioch, in Syria, at Joppa, Ephesus, 
Corinth, Thessaionica, Berea, Iconium, Derbe, 
Antioch in Pisidia, at Lydda, Saron, the number of 
converts is intimated by the expressions " a great 
number," ** great multitudes,'' much people." — 
Converts are mentioned, without any designation 
of their number*, at Tyre, Cesarea, Troas, Athens, 
Philippi, Lystra, Damascus. During all this time 
Jerusalem continued not only the centre of the mis- 
sion, but a principal seat of the religion ; for, 
when St. Paul returned tliiiher, at the conclusion 
of the period of which we are new considering the 
account, the other apostles pointed out to him, as 
a reason for his compliance with their advice, "how 
many thousands (myriads, ten thousands) there were 
in that city who believed -f 



* Consitleriiig* tlie extreme conciseness of many parts of llie his* 
tory, the silence about the nuraijers of converts is no proof of their 
paucity ; for at Piiiiippi, no mention whatever is made of the iaum* 
ber, yet St. Paul addressed an epistle to that church. The churches 
oEGalatia, and the affairs of those churches, were considerable enough 
to be the subject of another letter, and of much of St. Paul's solici- 
tude ; yet no account is preserved in the history of his success, or 
even of his preaching in that country, except ihe slight notice which 
these words convey : — " When they had gone throughout Fhrygia, 
and the region of Gaiatia, — they essayed to go into Eitljjnia." — 
Acts xvi. 6» + Acts xxi. 20. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



S47 



Upon this abstract, and the writing from which 
it is drawn, the following observations seein mate- 
rial to be made : — 

I. That the account comes from a person who 
was himself concerned in a portion of what he re- 
lates, and was contemporary with the whole of it, 
— who visited Jerusalem and frequented the so- 
ciety of those who had acted and were acting the 
chief parts in the transaction. I lay down this posi-^ 
lively ; for, had the ancient attestations to this va- 
luable record been less satisfactory than they are, 
the unaffected ness and simplicity with which the 
author notices his presence upon cei tain occasions, 
and the entire absence of art and design from these 
notices, would have been sufficient to persuade my 
mind, that whoever he was, he actually lived in the 
times, and occupied the situation in w hich he re- 
presents himself to be. When I say Whoever he 
was," I do not mean to cast a doubt upon the name 
to which antiquity hath ascribed the Acts of the 
Apostles (for there is no cause that I am acquainted 
with for questioning it) but to observe that, in such 
a case as this, the tune and situation of the author 
is of more importance than his name ; and that 
these appear from the work itself^ and in the most 
unsuspicious form. 

II. That this account is a very incomplete ac- 
count of the preaching and propagation ot Christi- 
anity : I mean, that if what we read in the history 
be true, much more than w hat the history contains 
must be true also ; — for, although the narrative 
from which our information is derived, has been 
entitled The Acts of the Apostles, it is in fact a 
history of the twelve apostles only during a short 
lime of their continuing together at Jerusalem ; and 
even of this period the account is very concise. The 



548 



THE EVIDENCES 



work afterwards consists of a few important pas* 
sages of Peter's ministry, of the speech and death 
of Stephen, of the preaching of Phihp the deacon ; 
and the sequel of the volume ; that is, two-thirds of 
the whole is taken up with the conversion, the 
travels, the discourses, and history of the new apos- 
tle, Paul ; in which history also large portions of 
time are often passed over with very scanty notice, 

III. That the account, so far as it goes, is for 
this very reason more qredible. Had it been the 
author's design to have displayed the early pro- 
gress of Christianity, he would undoubtedly have 
collected, or, at lea§t, have set forth accounts of the 
preaching of the rest of the apostles, who cannot, 
without extrenie jmprobabihty, be supposed to have 
remained silent and inactive, or not to have met 
with a share of that success which attended their 
colleagues; To which m^iy be added, ^s an obser'' 
vation of the same kind, 

IV. That the intimation of the number of con- 
verts, and of the success of the preaching of the 
apostles, come out for the most part incidentally ^ 
are xlrawn from the historian by the occasion ; — ^ 
such as the murmuring of the Grecian converts ; 
the rest from persecution ; Herod's death ; the 
sending of Barnabas to Antioch, and Barnabas call- 
ing Paul to his assistance ; Paul coming to a place, 
and finding there disciples ; the clamour of the 
Jews ; the complaint of artificers interested in the 
support of the popular religion ; the reason assigned 
to induce Paul to give satisfaction to the Christians 
of Jerusalem. Had it not been for these occasions, 
it is probable that no notice whatever would have 
been taken of the number of converts in several 
(Bf the passages in which that noUap now appears. 



\ 



0F CHRISTIAI^ITT. 549 

All this tends to remove the suspicion df a design to 
exacrcrerate or deceive. 

Parallel TEsriMONiEs with the history, are 
the letters which have come down to us of St. Paul, 
and of the Other apostles. Those of Saint Paul 
are addressed to the churches of Corinth, Philippic 
Thessalonica, the church of Galatia, and, if the in- 
scription be right, of Ephesus ; his ministry at ali 
which places is recorded in the history: to the 
x:hurch of Colosse, or rather the churches of 
Colosse and Laodicea jointly, which he had 
not then visited. They recognize by reference 
the churches of Judea, the churches of Asia, and 

all the churches of the Gentiles In the epis- 
tle t to the Romans, the author is led to deliver a 
remarkable declaration, concerning the extent of 
his preaching, its efficac}'^, and the cause to which he 
ascribes it, — " To make the Gentiles obedient by 
word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, 
by the power of the Spirit of God ; so that from 
Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have 
fully preached the Gospel of Christ." In the epis-^ 
tie to the Colossians J, we find an oblique but very 
strong signification of the general state of the 
Christian mission, at least as it appeared to Saint 
Paul : — "If ye continue in the faith, grounded 
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope 
of the G ospel, which ye have heard, and which teas 
pi^eachedto tmry creature which is under Heaven 
which Gospel he had reminded them near the be- 
ginning § of his letter, 'Svas present with them, ^7.^ 
it xvas i?i all the world,'' 

The expressions are hyperbolical ; but they are 
hyperboles which could only be used by a writer 
who entertained a strong sense of the subject. The 



* I Thes. ii. 14. 



+ Rom, XT. 18, 19. 
^ Chap. i. G, 



350 



THE EVIDENCES 



First Epistle of Peter accosts the Christians^ dis- 
persed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia^ 
Asia, and Bithynia. 



It comes nex^t to be considered, How far these 
accounts are confirmed or followed up by other 
evidence. 

Tacitus, in delivering a relation, which has al- 
ready been laid before the reader, of the fire which 
happened at Rome, in the tenth year of Nero, 
which coincides with the thirtieth year after Christ's 
ascension, asserts, That the emperor, in order to 
suppress the rumours of having been himself the 
author of the mischief, procured the Christians to 
be accused. Of which Christians, thus brought 
into his narrative, the following is so much of the 
historian's account as belongs to our present pur- 
pose : — " Tiiey had their denomination from Chris- 
tus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death 
as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. — 
This pernicious superstition, though checked for a 
while, broke out again, and spread not only over 
Judea, but reached the city also. At first, they 
only were apprehended who confessed themselves 
of that sect ; afterwards a mst multitude were dis^ 
covered by them.'' 

This testimony to the early propagation of Chris^ 
tianity is extremely material. It is from an histo- 
rian of great reputation, living near the time ; from 
a stranger and an enemy to the religion ; and it 
joins immediately with the period through which 
the Scripture accounts extend. It establishes these 
points : — That the religion began at Jerusalem ; 
that it spread throughout Judea ; that it reached 
Rome, and not only so, but that it had there ob- 
tained a great number of converts. This was about 
six years after the time that Saint Paul wrote his 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



351 



Epistle to the Romans, and something more than 
two years after he arrived there himself. The con- 
verts to the religion were then so numerous at 
Rome, that, of those who were betrayed by the 
information of the persons first persecuted, a great 
multitude ( viultitiido ingens ) were discovered and 
seized. 

It seems })robable that the temporary check 
which Tacitus represents Christianity to have re- 
ceived {repressa in prcesens) referred to the per- 
secution at Jerusalem, which followed the death of 
Stephen (Acts viii.) ; and which, by dispersing the 
converts, caused the institution, in some measure, 
to disappear. 

Its second eruption at the same place, and within 
a short time, has much in it of the character of 
truth. It was the firmness and perseverance of men 
who knew w^hat they relied upon. 

Next, in order of time, and perhaps superior in 
importance, is the testimony of Pliny the Younger. 
Pliny was the Roman governor of Pontus and 
Bithvnia, two considerable districts in the northern 
parts of Asia Minor. The situation in which he 
found his province, led him to apply to the emperor 
(Trajan) for his direction as to the conduct he was 
to hold towards the Christians. The letter in which 
this application is contained, was written not quite 
eighty years after Chrisfs ascension. The presi- 
dent, in this letter, states the measures he had al- 
ready pursued ; and then adds, as his reason for 
resorting to the emperor's counsel and authority, 
the following words : ^ Suspending all judicial 
proceedings, I have recourse to you for advice ; for 
it has appeared to me a matter highly deserving con- 
sideration, especially upon account of the great num- 
ber of persons who are in danger of suffering; for 
many of all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes 
likewise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor 



has the contai^ion of this superstition seized cities 
only, but the lesser towns also, and the open coun- 
try. Nevertheless, it seemed to me that it may be 
restrained and corrected. It is certain that the 
temples, which were almost forsaken, begin to be 
more frequented ; and the sacred solemnities, after 
a long intermission, are revived. Victims likewise » 
are everywhere (passim) bought up ; xvhereas, for 
some time, there were few- to purchase them. 
Whence it is easy to imagine what numbers of men 
might be redaimed, if pardon were granted to those 
that shall repent*.'^ 

It is obvious to observe, that the passage of 
Pliny's letter here quoted, proves, not only that the 
Christians in Pontus and Bithynia were now nu- 
merous, but that they had subsisted there for some 
considerable time. *'It is certain," he says, that 
the temples, which were almost forsaken (plainly 
ascribing this desertion of the popular worship to 
^ the prevalence of Christianity) begin to be more 
frequented ; and the sacred solemnities, after a long 
intermission, are revived," 

There are also two clauses in the former part of 
the letter which indicate the same thins : — One, in 
which he declares that he had ''never been present 
at any trials of Christianis ; and, therefore, knew 
not what was the usual subject of inquiry and pu- 
nishment, or how far either was wont to be urged." 

The second clause is the following : — " Others 
were named by an informer, who, at first, confess- 
ed themselves. Christians, and afterwards denied it; 
the rest said they had been Christians, some three 
years ago, some longer, and some above twenty 
years." It is also apparent, that Pliny speaks of 
the Christians as a description of men well known 
to the person to whom he writes. His first sentence 
concerning them is, '' I have never been present at 



* C, Plhi. Trajauo Imp. lib. ex ep. xcvii. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



353 



the trials of Christians." Tiiis mention of the 
name of Christians, without any preparatory ex- 
planation, shews that it was a term both familiar to 
the writer of the letter and the person to v»^hom it 
was addressed. Had it not been so, Pliny would 
naturally have begun his letter by informing the 
em[)eror, that he had met with a certain set of 
men in the province, called Christians. 

Here then is a very signal evidence of the pro- 
gress of the Christian religion in a short space. It 
w^as not fourscore years after the crucifixion of 
Jesus when Phny wrote this letter; not seventy 
years since the apostles of Jesus began to mention 
his name to the Gentile world. Bithynia and Pon- 
tus were at a great distance from Judea, the centre 
from which the religion spread ; yet in these pro- 
vinces Christianity had long subsisted, and Chris- 
tians were now in such numbers as to lead the Ro- 
man governor to report to the emperor. That they 
w^ere found not only in cities, but in villages and in 
open countries; of all ages, of every rank and con- 
dition ; that they abounded so much as to have 
produced a visible desertion of the temples ; that 
beasts brought to market for victims had few pur- 
chasers; that the sacred solemnities were much 
neglected: — circumstances noted by Pliny, for 
the express purpose of showing to the emperor the 
effect and prevalency of the new institution. 

No evidence remains by which it can be proved 
that the Christians were more numerous in Pontus 
and Bithynia than ip any other parts of the Roman 
empire ; nor has any reason been offered to show 
why they should be so. Christianity did not begin 
}n these countries, nor near them. L do notkiiow, 
therefore, that we ought to cpnfine the dqscripiion 
in Pliny's letter to the state of Christianity in those 
provinces, even if no other account of the same sub- 
ject had conae down |p us ; but^ certainly, this let- 



354 



THE EVIDENCES 



ter may fairly be applied in aid and confirmation 
of the representations given of the general state of 
Christianity in the world, by Christian writers of 
that and the next succeeding age. 

Justin Martyr, who wrote about thirty years 
dfter, Pliny, and one hundred and six after the As- 
cension, has these remarkable words : — There is 
not a nation, either of Greek or Barbarian, or of 
any other name, even of those who wander in tribes 
and live in tents, amongst whom prayers and thanks- 
givings are not offered to the Father and Creator of 
the Universe by the name of the crucified Jesus'*." 
Tertullian, who com.es about fifty years after Jus- 
tin, appeals to the governors of the Roman empire 
in these terms : — "We were but of yesterday, and 
we have filled your cities, islands, towns, and bo- 
roughs, the camp, the senate, and the forum. They 
(the Heathen adversaries of Christianity) lament, 
that every sex, age, and condition, and persons of 
every rank also, are converts to that namef." I 
do ^llow that these expressions are loose, and may 
be called Declamatory ; but even declamation hath 
its. bounds. This public boasting upon a subject 
which must be known to every reader, was not only 
useless, but unnatural, unless the truth of the case, 
in a considerable degree, correspond with the de- 
scription ; at least, unless it had been both true 
and notorious that great multitudes of Christians, 
of all ranks and orders, were to be found in most 
parts of the Roman empire. The same Tertullian, 
in another passage, by way of setting forth the ex- 
tensive diffusion of Christianity, enumerates as be- 
longing to Christ, beside many other countries, the 
" Moors and GfEtulians of Africa, the borders of 
Spain, several nations of France, and parts of Bri- 



* Dial, cum Tr}'ph. 



t Tertull. Apol. c 37. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



355 



tain inaccessftle to the Romans, the Sarmatians, 
Daci, Germans, and Scythians and, which is 
more material than the extent of the institution, the 
number of Christians in the several countries in 
which it prevailed, is thus expressed by him : — 

Although so great a multitude that, in almost 
every city we form the greater part, we pass our 
time modestly and in silence f." Clemens Alexan- 
drinus, who preceded Tertullian by a few years, in- 
troduces a comparison between the success of 
Christianity and that of the most celebrated philo- 
sophical institutions : — The philosophers were 
confined to Greece, and to their particular retain- 
ers ; bu,t the doctrine of the Master of Christianity 
did not remain in Judea, as philosophy did in, 
Greece ; but is spread throughout the whole world, 
in every nation, and village, and city, bothofGreeks 
and barbarians, converting both whole houses and 
separate individuals, having already brought over 
to the truth not a few of the philosophers thexn- 
selves. If the Greek philosophy be prohibited, it 
immediately vanishes ; whereas, from the first 
preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, go- 
vernors and presidents, with their whole train, and 
with the populace on their side, have endeavoured 
with their whole might to exterminate it ; yet dotli 
it flourish more and more J.'' 

Origen, who follows Tertullian at the distance of 
only thirty years, dehvers nearly the same account ; — 

In every part of the world," says he, "throughout 
all Greece, and in all other nations, there are in- 
numerable and immense multitudes, who having 
left the laws of their country, and those whom they 
esteemed gods, have given themselves up to the 
law of Moses and the religion of Christ ; and this 
not without the bitterest resentment from the idola- 



* Ad. Jud. c. 7. + Ad Sc. ciii. 

X Clem. Al. Strom, lib. vi. ad fin. 

A a 2 



S56 



THE EVIDENCES 



tors, by whom they were frequently put to tortare, 
and sometitiies to death ; and it is wonderful to ob- 
serve how, in so short a time, the religion has in- 
creased, amidst punishment and death^ and ever}'- 
kind of torture 

In another passage, Oricren draws the following 
candid comparison between the state of Christianity 
ia his time, and the condition of its more primitive 
ages : — "By the good providence of God, the 
Christian religion has so flourished and increased 
continually, that it is now preached freely without 
molestation, although there were a thousand ob- 
stacles to the spreading of the doctrine of Jesus in 
the world ; but as it was the will of God that the 
Gentiles should have the benefit of it, all the coun- 
cils of men against the Christians were defeated; 
and by how much the more emperors and govern- 
ors of provinces, and the people everywhere strove 
to depress them, so much the more have they in- 
creased, and prevailed exceedingly f 

It is well known, that within less than eighty years 
after thib, the Roman empire becanje Christian un- 
der Constantine ; and it is probable that Constan- 
tine declared himself on the side of the Christians, 
because they were the powerful party ; for Arnobius, 
who wTole immediately before Constantine's acces- 
sion, speaks of the whole world as filled with' 
Christ's doctrine, of its diffusion throughout all 
countries, of an innumerable body of Christians in 
distant provinces, of the strange revolution of opi- 
nion of men of the greatest genius, orators, gramma- 
rians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, having come 
over to the institution ; and that also in the face of 
threats, executions, and tortures J." And not more 
than twenty years after Constantine's entire posses- 
sion of the empire, Julius Firmicus jMaternus calls 



* Orig. in Cels. lib. i. i Orig.in Cels. lib- vii. 

X Amob. in Gentes, 1. i. p. 27,9, 42, 4i. edit. Lisg. Eat. 16^0, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



S57 



upon the emperors Constantius and Constans to 
extirpate the relics of the ancient rehgion ; the re- 
duced and fallen condition of which is described by 
our author in the following words : — Licet adhuc 
in quibusdam regionibus idololatriee morientia pal- 
pitent membra; tamen in eo res est, ut a Chris- 
tianis omnibus terris pestiferum hoc malum funditus 
amputetur f' and in another place, " iNiodicum tan- 
turn superest, ut legibus vestris — extincta idolola- 
tri^e pereat funesta contagio *." It will not be 
thought that we quote this writer in order to re- 
commend his temper or his judgment, but to show 
the comparative state of Christianit}^ and of Hea- 
thenism at this period. Fifty years afterwards, 
Jerome represents the decline of Paganism in lan- 
guage which conveys the same idea of its approach- 
ing extinction : — " Solitudmem patitur et in urbe 
gentilitas. Dii quondam nationum, cum bubonibus 
et noctuis, in solis culminibus remanserunt f." Je- 
rome heie mdulges a triumph, natural and allow- 
able in a zealous friend of the cause, but which 
could only be suggested to his mind by the consent 
and universality with which he saw the religion re- 
ceived. " But now," says he, the passion and re- 
surrection of Christ are celebrated in the discourses 
and w^ritings of all nations. I need not mention 
Jews, Greeks, and Latins. The Indians, Persians, 
Goths, and Egyptians, philosophize, and firmly be- 
lieve the immortality of the soul and future re- 
compences, which, before, the greatest philosophers 
had denied, or doubted of, or perplexed with tiieir 
disputes. The fierceness of Thracians and Scythians 
is now softened by the gentle sound of the Gospel; 
and everywhere Christ is all in all J." Were there- 
fore the motives of Constantino's conversion ever 



* De Error. Profan. Eeli^. c- xxi. p. 172, quoted by Lardner, 
\iti. p. 2()2. 

f Jv^r- H.d L.ect. ep. oT- t ^P* ^' ^d Heioitl: 



55S 



THE EVIDENCES 



SO problematical, the easy establishment of Chris- 
tianity, and the ruin of Heathenism unJer him and 
Ills immediate successors, is of itself a proof of the 
progress which Christianity had made in the pre- 
ceding period. It may be added also, " that Max- 
entius, the rival of Constantine, had shewn himself 
friendly to the Christians. Therefore, of those who 
were contending for worldly power and empire, one 
actually favoured and flattered them, — and another 
may be suspected to have joined himself to them, 
partly from consideration of interest; so consider- 
able were they become, under external disadvan- 
tages of all sorts*." This at least is certain, that 
throughout the whole transaction hitherto, the great 
seemed to follow, not to lead, the public opinion. 

It may help to convey to us some notion of the 
extent and progress of Christianity, or rather of the 
character and quality of many early Christians, of 
their learning and their labours, to notice the num- 
ber of Christian zvriters who flourished in these ages. 
Saint Jerome's catalogue contains sLvty-sLv writers 
within the first three centuries, and the first six 
years of the fourth ; and fifty-four between that 
time and his own, mz. A. D. 3^2. Jerome intro- 
duces his catalogue with the following just remon- 
strance : — " Let those wdio say the church has had 
no philosophers, nor eloquent and learned men, ob- 
serve who and what they were who founded, es- 
tablished, and adorned it : let them cease to accuse 
our faith of rusticit}^, and confess their mistake f 
Of these writers, several, as Justin, Irenaeus, Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Barde- 
sanes, Hippolitus, Eusebius, were voluminous 
writers. Christian writers abounded particularly 
about the year 178. Alexander, bishop of Jerusa- 
lem, founded a library in that city, A. D. 2 1 2. Pam- 



* Jjardner, vol. vii. p. 38©. f Jer. ProL in Lib. de Ser. EecU 



DF CHJliSTiANltY. 



S59 



philus, the friend of Origen, founded a library at 
Cesarea, A. D. 294. Public defences were also set 
forth by various advocates of the religion, in the 
course of its three first centuries. Within one 
hundred years after Christ's ascension, Quadratus 
and Aristides, whose works, except some few frag- 
ments of the first, are lost ; and, about twenty years 
afterwards, Justin Martyr, whose works remain, 
presented apologies for the Christian religion to the 
Roman emperors ; Quadratus and Aristides to Ad- 
rian, Justin to Antoninus Pius, and a second to Mar- 
cus Antoninus. Melito, bishop of Sardis, and Apol- 
linaris, bishop of Hierapolis, and Miltiades, men of 
great reputation, did the same to IMarcus Antoninus, 
twenty years afterwards * ; and ten years after this, 
Apollonius, who suffered martyrdom under the em- 
peror Cornmodus, composed an apology for his 
faith, which he read in the senate, and which Was 
afterwards published f. Fourteen ^^ears after the 
apology of Apollonius, Tertullian addressed the 
work, which now remains under that name, to the 
governors of provinces in the Roman empire ; and, 
about the same time, Minucius Felix composed a 
defence of the Christian religion, which is still ex- 
tant ; and, shortly after the conclusion of this cen- 
tury, copious defences of Christianity were pub- 
lished by Arnobius and Lactantius. 



* Euseb. Hist. lib. iv. c. 26. SeR also Lanlnorj vol, ii. p. 66^. 
f Lardner, toI ii. p. 



36a 



THE EVIDENCES? 



SECTION III. 

Reflections upon the preceding Account, 

In viewing the progress of Christianity, our first 
attention is due to the number of converts at Jeru- 
salem, immediately after its Founder's death, be- 
cause this success was a success at the time, and 
upon the spot, when and where the chief part of the 
history had been transacted. 

We are, in the next piace, called upon to attend 
to the early establishment of numerous Christian 
societies in Judea and Galilee; which countries had 
been the scene of Christ's miracles and ministry, 
and where the memory of what had passed, and the 
knowledge of what was alleged, must have yet been 
fresh and certain. 

We are, thirdly, invited to recollect the success 
of the apostles and of their companions, at the se- 
veral places to which they came, both within and 
without Judea; because it was the credit given to 
original witnesses, appealing for the truth of their 
accounts to what themselves had seen and heard. 
The effect also of their preaching strongly confirms 
the truth of what our history positively and circum- 
stantially relates, that they were able to exhibit to 
their hearers supernatural attestation of their mis- 
sion. 

We are, lasdy, to consider the subsequent gxov^'ih. 
and spread of the religion, of which we receive suc- 
cessive intimations, and satisfactory though general 
and occasional accounts, until its full and final es- 
tablishment. 

In all these several stages, the history is without a 
parallel ; for it must be observed, that we have not 
been tracing the progress, and describing the pre- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



361 



valency, of an opinion, founded upon philosophica 
or critical arguments, upon mere deductions of rea- 
son, or the construction of ancient writings (of 
which kind are the several theories which have, at 
different times, gained possession of the public mind 
in various departments of science and literature ; 
and of one or other of which kind are the tenets also 
which divide the various sects of Christianity) — but 
that we speak of a system, the very basis and postu- 
latum of which was a supernatural character ascrib- 
ed to a particular person ; of a doctrine, the truth 
whereof depended entirely upon the truth of a 
matter of fact then recent. To establish a new re- 
ligion, even amongst a few people, or in one single 
nation, is a thing in itself exceedingly difficult. To 
reform some corruptions which may have spread in 
a religion, or to make new regulations in it, is not 
perhaps so hard, when the main and principal part 
of that religion is preserved entire and unshaken ; 
and yet this very often cannot be accomplished 
without an extraordinary concurrence of circum- 
stances ; and may be attempted a thousand times 
without success. But to introduce a new faith, a 
new way of thinking and acting, and to persuade 
many nations to quit the reUgion in which their an- 
cestors had lived and died, which had been deliver- 
ed down to them from lime immemorial; to make 
them forsake and despise the deities which they had 
been accustomed to reverence and worship, — this is 
a work of still greater difficulty The resistance 
of education, worldly policy, and superstition, is al- 
most invincible." 

If men in these days be Christians in conse- 
quence of their education, in submission to autho- 
rity, or in compliance with fashion, let us recollect 
that the very contraiy of this, at the beginning, was 



* Jortin's Disc, ou Hie Christ. Rei. p. 107, ed, iv. 



the case. The first race of Christians, as well as 
millions who succeeded them, became such in 
formal opposition to all these motives, to the whole 
power and strength of this influence. Every argu- 
ment, therefore, and every instance, which sets forth 
the prejudice of education, and the almost irresisti- 
ble effects of that prejudice (and no persons ai^ 
more fond of expatiating upon this subject than 
Deistical writers) in fact confirms the evidence of 
Christianity. 

But, in order to judge of the argument which is 
drawn from the early propagation of Christianity, I 
know no fairer way of proceeding, than to compare 
w^hat we have seen of the subject with the success 
of Christian missions in modern ages. In the East 
'India mission, supported by the Society for pro- 
•^oting Christian Knowledge, we hear sometimes of 
thirty, sometimes of forty, being baptized in the 
course of a year, and these principally children. — 
Of converts properly so called, that is, of adults vo- 
luntarily embracing Christianity, the number is ex- 
tremely small. Notwithstanding the labour of 
missionaries for upwards of two hundred years, and 
the establishment of different Christian nations who 
support ihem, there are not twelve thousand Indian 
Christians, and those almost entirely outcasts*'." 

I lament, as much as any man, the little progress 
which Christianity has made in these countries, and 
the inconsiderable effect that has followed the la- 
bours of its missionaries ; but I see in it a strong 
proof of the Divine origin of the religion. What 
had the apostles to assist them in propagating Chris- 
tianity ^vhich the missionaries have not? If piety 
and zeal bad been sufficient, I doubt not but that 



* Sketches relating to the Historj% Learuicg, and Manners oftLe 
Hindoos, p. 48. ; quoted by Dr. Robertson. Kist, Dis. concerning 
ancient India, p. 236. 



"OF CHRISTIANS- 1 TY. 



S63 



our missionaries possess these qualities in a high 
degree ; for nothing except piety and zeal could en- 
gage them in the undertaking. If sanctity of life 
-and manners was the allurement, the conduct of 
'these men is unblameable. If the advantage of ^ 
^ed-ucatron and learning be looked to, there is not 
^one of the modern missionaries who is not, in this 
respect, superior to all the apostles; and that not 
only absolutely, but, what is of more importance, 
■relatively, in comparison, that is, with those 
amongst whom they exercise their office. If the in- 
trinsic excellence of the rehgion, the perfection of 
its morality, the purity of its precepts, the eloquence, 
or tenderness, or sublimity of various parts of its 
"writings, v/ere the recommendations by which it 
made its way, these remain the same. If the cha- 
racter and circumstances under which the preachers 
were introduced to the countries in which they 
taught, be accounted of importance, this advantage 
is all on the side of the modern missionaries. They 
come from a country and a people to which the In- 
dian world look up with sentiments of deference. 
The apostles came forth amongst the Gentiles under 
no other name than that of Jews, which was pre- 
cisely the character they despised and derided. If 
it be disgraceful in India to become a Christian, it 
<^ould not be much less to be enrolled amongst those 
quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos apel- 
iabat." If the religion which they had to encounter 
be considered, the difference, I apprehend, will not 
be great. The theology of both was nearly tiie 
same ; " what is supposed to be performed by the 
power of Jupiter, of Neptune, of ^olus, of Mar^% 
of Venus, according to the mythology of the West, 
is ascribed, in the East, to the agency of Agrio the 
god of fire, Varoon the god of oceans, Vayoo the 
god of wind, Cama the god of love The sacred 



* Baghvat Geetai p. 94. quoted by Dr. RobcitsoD, Ind- Dis. p. 30?. 



S64< 



THE EVIDENCES 



rites of the Western Pol v theism were ga}^, festive, 
and licentious ; the rites of the public religion in 
the East partake of the same character, with a 
more avowed indecency. ^' In every function per- 
formed in the pagodas, as well as in every public 
procession, it is the office of these women (i. e. of 
woQ:ien prepared by the Braiimins for the purpose) 
to dance before the idol, and to sing hymns in his 
praise ; and it is difficult to sa} whether they tres- 
pass most against decency by the gestures they ex- 
hibit, or by the verses which they recite. The walls 
of the pagodas were covered with paintings in a 
style no less indelicate 

On both sides of the comparison, the popular re- 
ligion had a strong estabhshment. In ancient 
Greece and Rome, it was strictly incorporated with 
the state. The magistrate was the priest. The 
highest officers of government bore the most distin- 
guished part in the celebration of the public rites. 
In India, a powerful and numerous cast possess ex- 
clusively the administration of the established wor- 
ship ; and are, of consequence, devoted to its ser- 
vice, and attached to its interest. lu both, the pre- 
vailing mythology was destitute of any proper 
evidence ; or rather, in both, the origin of the tra- 
dition is run up into ages long anterior to the exist- 
ence of credible history, or of written language. The 
Indian chronology computes Eeras by millions of 
3^ears, and the life of man by thousands f ; and in 
these, or prior to these, is placed the history of their 



* Others of the deities of the East are of an austere and gloomy 
character, to be propitiated by victims, sometimes by human sacri- 
fices, and by voluntaiy torments of tJiemost excruciating: kind- 
Voyage de Gentil. vol. i. p. 244—260. Preface to Code of Gen- 
too Laws, p. 57, qnoted by Dr. Robertson, p. 320. 

t " The Suliec Jogue, or age of puritj^ is said to have lasted three 
million two hundred thousand years ; and they hold that the life of 
man was extended in that age to one hundred thousand years ; but 
tliere is a dilierence amongst the Indian writers of six iniiiions 6t 
years iu the computation of this aera." lb. ' 



OF CHRISTTANITY. 



S65 



divinities. In both, the established superstition 
held the same place in the public opinion ; that is 
to say, in both it was credited by the bulk of the 
people*; but by the learned and philosophic part 
of the community, either derided, or regarded by 
them as only fit to be upholden for the sake of its 
political usesf. 

Or, if it should be allowed that the ancient Hea- 
thens believed in their reliction less generally than 
the present Indians do, I am far from thinking that 
this circumstance would afford any facility to the 
work of the apostles above that of the modern mis- 
sionaries. To me it appears, and I think it mate- 
rial to be remarked, that a disbehef of the establish- 
ed religion of their country has no tendency to dis- 
pose men for the reception of another; but that, 
on the contrary, it generates a settled contempt of 



* " How absurd soever the articles of faith may he which super- 
stition has adopted, or how unhallowed the rites which it prescribes, 
the former are received, in every age and country, with unhesitating 
assent, by the great body of the people ; and the latter observed with 
scrupulous exactness. In our reasonings concerning opinions and 
practices which dilier widely from our own, we Jire extremely apt 
TO err. Having been instructed ourselves in the principles of a re- 
ligion worthy in every respect of that Di\ine wisdom by which they 
were dictated, we freqnentiy express wonder at ttie credulity of na- 
tions, in embracing systems of belief whicli appear to us so directly 
repugnant to right reason ; and sometimes suspect that tenets so 
wild and extravagant do not really gain credit with thcin; but ex- 
perience may satisly us, that neiiiierour wonder nor suspicious are 
well founded- No article of the public religion was called in ques- 
tion by those people of ancient Kurope, witli w hose liistoi}' we are 
best acquainted ; atid no practice w hich it enjoined, appeared im- 
proper to them. On the other hand, every opinion that tended to 
diminish the reverence of men for the gods of their country, or to, 
alienate them from their worship, excited among tlie Greeks and 
Romans that inelignant zeal which is natural to every people at- 
taciicd to their religion by a firm persuasion of its truth." lud. Dis, 
p. 321. 

f That the learned Erahmius of the East are rational Theists, and 
secretly reject th^ established theory, and contemn the rites that 
were founded upon them, or rather consider them as contrivances 
to be supported fur their political uses, see Dr. Robertson's Ind. 
Dis.' p. 324—334. ' 



^66 



THE EVI0ENCE3 



all religious pretensions whatever. General infi- 
delity is the hardest soil which the propagators of a 
new religion can have to work upon. Could a Me- 
thodist or a Moravian promise himself a better 
chance of success with a French esprit fort^ who 
had been accustomed to laugh at the Popery of his 
country, than with a believing Mahometan or Hin- 
doo ? Or are our modern unbelievers in Christianity, 
for that reason, in danger of becoming Mahometai?^ 
or Hindoos ? It d©es not appear that the Jew% whc^ 
had a body of historical evidence to offer for their 
religion, and who, at that time undoubtedly ent^r-^ 
tained and held forth the expectation of a future, 
state, derived any great advantage, as to the exten- 
sion of their system, from the discredit into whigh. 
the popular rehgion had fallen with many of their 
Heathen neighbours. 

We have particularly directed our observations 
to the state and progress of Christianity amongst 
the inhabitants of India ; but the history of the 
Christian mission in other countries, where the effi- 
cacy of the mission is left solely to the conviction 
wrought by the preaching of strangers, presents the 
same idea as the Indian mission does, of the feeble- 
ness and inadequacy of human means. About 
twenty-five years ago, was published in England, a 
translation from the Dutch of a History of Green^. 
land, and a relation of the mission for above thirty 
years carried on in that country by the Unitasf 
Fratrum, or Moravians. Every part of that rela- 
tion confirms the opinion we have stated. Nothing 
could surpass, or hardly equal, the zeal and patience 
of the missionaries. Yet their historian, in the 
conclusion of his narrative, could find place for no 
reflections more encouraging than the following : — 
•* A person that had knovvu the Heathen, that had 
seen the little benefit from the great pains hitherto 
taken with them, and considered that one after an- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



367 



other had abandoned all hopes of the conversion of 
those infidels (and some thought they would never 
be converted till they saw miracles wrought as ia 
the apostles' days, and this the Greenlanders ex- 
pected and demanded of their instructors) — one 
that considered this, I say, would not so much 
Tvonder at the past unfruitfulness of these young 
beginners, as at their stedfast perseverance in the 
midst of nothing but distress, difficulties, and impe- 
diments, internally and externally ; and that they 
never desponded of the conversion of these poor 
creatures amidst all seeming impossibilities 

From the widely and disproportionate effects 
which attend the preaching of modern missionaries 
of Christianity, compared with what followed the 
ministry of Christ and his apostles, under circum- 
stances either alike, or not so unlike as to account 
for^.the difference, a conclusion is fairly drawn ia 
support of what our histories deliver concerning 
them, viz. That they possessed means of conviction, 
which we have not ; that they had proofs to appeal 
tO; which we xvant. 



f History of Greenland, toI. ii. p. 3Tf » 



36s 



THE EVIDENbES 



SECTION III. 

Of the Religion of Mahomet, 

jI^he only event in the history of the human spe* 
cies which admits of comparison with the propaga- 
tion of Christianity, is the success of Mahometanism. 
The Mahometan institution was rapid in its pro- 
gress, was recent in its history, and was founded 
upon a supernatural or prophetic character assum- 
ed by its author. In these articles, the resemblance 
with Christianity is confessed ^ but there are points, 
of difference which separate, we apprehend, the 
two cases entirely. 

I. Mahomet did not found his pretensions upon 
miracles, properly so called ; that is, upon proofs 
of supernatural agency, capable of being known, 
^nd attested by others. Christians are warranted 
in this assertion by the evidence of the Koran, in 
which Mahomet not only does not affect the power 
of working miracles, but expressly disclaims it. The 
following passages of that book furnish direct proofs 
of the truth of v/hat we allege : — " The infidels 
say, Unless a sign be sent down unto him from his 
lord, we will not believe ; thou art a preacher 
only^." Again, Nothing hindered us from send- 
ing thee with miracles, except that the former na- 
tions have charged them with imposture f." And 
lastly, They say. Unless a sign be sent down unto 
him from his lord, we will not believe. Answer, — 
Signs are in the pow er of God alone ; and 1 am no 
more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for 
them, that we have sent down unto them the book of 



* tSale's Koran, c- xiii. p. 201, ccL quarto. f C. xvii. p. 232^ 



OF CHRiSTIANITr. 



S69 



the Koran to be read unto them ^ ?" Beside these 
acknowledgements, I have observed thirteen dis- 
tinct places, in which Mahomet puts the objection 
(unless a sign, &c.) into the mouth of the unbeliever ; 
in not one of which does he allege a miracle in 
reply. His answer is, That God giveth the power 
of working miracles when and to whom he pleas- 
ethf ;" "That if he should work miracles, they 
would not believe :J: "That they had before re- 
jected Moses, and Jesus, and the Prophets, who 
wrought miracles § f " That the Koran itself was a 
miracle ||." 

The only place in the Koran in which it can be 
pretended that a sensible miracle is referred to (for 
I do not allow tfie Secret Visitations of Gabriel, the 
Night-journey of Mahomet to Heaven, or the Pre- 
sence in battle of Invisible Hosts of Angels, to deserve 
the name of semible miracles) is the beginning of 
the fifty-fourth chapter. The words are these : — 

The hour of judgment approacheth, and the moon 
hath been split asunder : but if the unbelievers see 
a sign, they turn aside, saying. This is a powerful 
charm." The Mahometan expositors disagree in 
their interpretation of this passage ; some explain- 
ing it to be a mention of the splitting of the moon, 
as one of the future signs of the approach of the 
day of judgment; others referring to a miraculous 
appearance which had then taken place It seems 
to me not improbable that Mahomet may have 
taken advantage of some extraordinary halo, or 
other unusual appearance of the moon, which had 
happened about this time ; and which supplied a 
foundation both for this passage, and for the story 
which in after-times had been raised out of it. 

After this more than silence, after these authentic 



Sale's Koran, c. xxix. p. 328. f C. v. x. xii. twice. X C. vi 
§ C. iii. xxi. xxviii. \\ C. xvi, ^ \'j.de Sale n kc 

B b 



370 



THE EVIDENCES 



confessions of the Koran, we are not to be moved 
with miraculous stories related of Mahomet by 
Abulfeda, who wrote his Life about six hundred 
years after his death ; or which are found in the 
Lecjend of Al-Jannabi, who came two hundred years 
later*. On the contrary, from comparing what 
Mahomet himself wrote and said, with what was 
afterwards reported of him by his followers, the 
plain and fair conclusion is, that w^hen the religion 
was established by conquest, then, and not till then, 
came out the stories of his miracles. 

Now this difference alone constitutes, in my opi- 
nion, a bar to all reasoning from one case to the 
other. The success of a religion founded upon a 
miraculous history, shews the credit which was 
given to the history ; and this credit, under the cir- 
cumstances in which it was given, i, e, by persons 
capable of knowing the truth, and interested to in- 
quire after it, is evidence of the reality of the his- 
tory, and, by consequence, of the truth of the reli* 
gion. Where a miraculous story is not alleged, no 
part of this argument can be implied. We admit 
that multitudes acknowledged the pretensions of 
Mahomet ; but, these pretensions being destitute of 
miraculous evidence, we know that the grounds 
upon which they were acknowledged, could not be 
secure grounds of persuasion to his followers, nor 
their example any authority to us. Admit the whole 
of Mahomet's authentic history, so far as it was of 
a nature capable of being known or witnessed by 
others, to be true (which is certainly to admit all 
that the reception of the religion can be brought to 



* It does not, I think, appear that these historians had any written 
accounts to appeal to, more ancient than the Sonnah ; which was a 
collection of traditions, made by order of the Caliphs, two hundred 
years after Mahomet's death. Mahomet died A. D. 632 ; Al-Bo- 
ehari, one of the six doctors who compiled the Sonnah, was born 
/V. D. 809, died 869. Prideauxs Life of Mahomet, p. 192, ed, 7 th. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



371 



prove) and Mahomet might still be an impostoi, oi 
enthusiast, or an union of both. Admit to be true 
almost any part of Christ's history, of that, I mean, 
which was public, and within the cognizance of his 
followers, and he must have come from God. — 
Where matter of fact is not in question, w^here mi- 
racles are not alleged, I do not see that the progress 
of a religion is a better argument of its truth, than 
the prevalency of any system of opinions in natural 
religion, morality, or physics, is a proof of the truth 
of those opinions ; and we know that this sort of 
argument is inadmissible in any branch of philo- 
sophy whatever. 

But it will be said, If one religion could make its 
way without miracles, w^hy might not another ? To 
which I reply, first, That this is not the question ; 
the proper question is not Whether a religious insti- 
tution could be set up without miracles? but Whe- 
ther a religion, or a change of religion, founding it- 
self in miracles, could succeed without any reahty 
to rest upon? I apprehend these two cases to be 
very different ; and I apprehend Mahomet's not 
taking this course to be one proof, amongst others, 
that the thing is difficult, if not impossible, to be 
accomplished. Certainly it w^as not from an uncon- 
sciousness of the value and importance of miracu- 
lous evidence ; for it is very observable that in the 
same volume, and sometimes in the same chapters, 
in which Mahomet so frequently disclaims the 
power of working miracle* himself, he is incessantly 
referring to the miracles of preceding prophets. 
One would iuiag^ine, to hear some men talk or to read 
some books, that the setting up of a religion by dint 
of miraculous pretences was a thing of every day's 
experience ; whereas I believe that, except the 
Jewish and Christian religion, there is no tolerably 
well-authenticated account of any such thing having 
been accou^plished. 



57^ 



THE EVIDENCES 



II. The establishment of Mahomet's religion was 
efFected by causes which in no degree appertained 
to the origin of Christianity. 

During the first twelve years of his mission, Ma- 
homet had recourse only to persuasion. This is 
allowed ; and there is sufficient reason from the 
effect to believe^ that if he had confined himself to 
this mode of propagating his religion, we of the pre- 
sent day should never have heard either of him or 
it. " Three years were silently employed in the 
conversion of fourteen proselytes. For ten years, 
the religion advanced with a slow and painful pro- 
gress within the walls of Mecca. The number of 
proselytes in the seventh year of his mission may be 
estimated by the absence of eighty-three men and 
eighteen women, who retired to Ethiopia*." Yet 
this progress, such as it was, appears to have been 
aided by some very important advantages which 
Mahomet found in his situation, in his mode of con- 
ducting his design, and in his doctrine. 

1. Mahomet was the grandson of the most power- 
ful and honourable family in Mecca ; and although 
the early death of his father had not left him a pa- 
trimony suitable to his birth, he had, long before the 
commencement of bis mission, repaired this defi^ 
ciency by an opulent marriage. A person consider- 
able' by his wealth, of high descent, and nearly allied 
to the chiefs of his country, taking upon himself the 
character of a religious teacher, would not fail of 
attracting attention and followers. 

2. Mahomet conducted his design, in the outset 
especially, with great art and prudence. He con- 
ducted it as a politician would conduct a plot. His 
first application was to his ow^n family. This gained 
him his wife's uncle, a considerable person in Mecca, 
together with his cousin Ali, afterwards the cele^ 



* Gibbon's Hist vol. ix. p. 244. et seq. ; ed. Dab., 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



brated Caliph, then a youth of great expectation, 
and even ah'eady distinguished by his attachment, 
impetuosity, and courage*. He next addressed 
himself to Abu Beer, a man amongst the first of the 
Koreish in wealth and influence. The interest and 
example of Abu Beer, drew in five other principal 
persons in Mecca, whose solicitations prevailed upon 
five more of the same rank. This was the work of 
three years ; during which time, every thing was 
transacted in secret. Upon the strength of these 
allies, and under the powerful protection of his fa- 
mily, who, however some of them might disapprove 
his enterprise or deride his pretensions, would not 
suffer the orphan of their house, the relic of their 
favourite brother to be insulted, Mahomet now com 
menced his public preaching; and the advance which 
he made, during the nine or ten remaining years of 
his public ministry, was by no means greater than 
what, with these advantages, and with the additional 
and singular circumstance of there being no esta- 
blished religion at Mecca at that time to contend 
with, might reasonably have been expected. How 
soon his primitive adherents were let into the secret 
of his views of empire, or in what stage of his under- 
taking these views first opened themselves to his 
own mind, it is not now easy to determme. The 
event, however, was, that these, his first proselytes, 
all ultimately attained to riches and honours, to the 
command of armies, and the government of king- 
doms f. 



* Of which Mr. Gibbon lias preserved the followhig specimen ; — ■ 
" When Mahomet called out, in an assembly oHiis tamiiy, Who 
among: you will be my companion, and my vizir? Aii, then only in 
the fourteenth year of his cige,. suddenly replied, O prophet, 1 am 
the man; — whosoever rises against thei', I will dash out his teeth, 
tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, 1 will 
be thy vizir over them." Vol. ix. p. 245. 

t Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 244, 



374 



THE EVIDENCES 



3. The Arabs deduced their descent from Abra- 
ham through the line of Ishmael. The inhabitants 
of Mecca, in common probably with the other Ara- 
bian tribes, acknowledged, as I think, may clearly 
be collected from tlie Koran, One Supreme Deity ; 
but had associated with him many objects of idola- 
trous worship. The great doctrine wiih which 
Mahomet set out, was the strict and exclusive unity 
of God. Abraham, he told them, was their illustrious 
ancestor ; Ishmael, the father of their nation ; 
Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews ; and Jesus, the 
author of Christianity, had all asserted the same 
thing; that their followers had universally corrupt- 
ed the truth, and that he w^as now- commissioned to 
restore it to the world. Was it to be wondered at, 
that a doctrine so specious, and authoi ized by names, 
some or other of which were holden in the highest 
veneration by every description of his hearers, 
should, in the hands of a popular missionary, pre- 
vail to the extent in which Mahomet succeeded by 
his pacific ministry ? 

4. Qf the institution which Mahomet joined with 
this fundamental doctrine, and of the Koran in 
which that institution is delivered, we discover, I 
think, two purposes that pervade the whole, mz. to 
make converts, and to make these converts soldiers. 
The following particulars, amongst others, may be 
considered as pretty evident indications of these 
designs ; — - 

1. When Mahomet began to preach, his address 
to the Jew s, the Christians, and to the Pagan Arabs, 
was, that the religion which he taught, was no othet* 
than w hat had been originally their own. — " We 
believe in God, and that which hath been sent down 
unto us, and that which hath been sent down unto 
Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
the Tribes,, and that which was delivered unto Moses 
and Jesus, and that which was delivered unto tlic 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



375 



prophets from their Lord ; we make no distinction 
between any of them " He hath ordained you 
the rehgion which he commanded Noah, and which 
we have revealed unto thee, O Mohammed, and 
which we commanded Abraham, and Moses, and 
Jesus, saying, Observe this religion, and be not di- 
vided therein |." " He hath chosen you, and hath 
not imposed upon yon any difficulty in the religion 
which he hath given you, the religion of your father 
Abraham 

2. The author of the Koran never ceases from 
describing the future anguish of unbehevers, their 
despair, regret, penitence, and torment. It is the 
point which he labours above all others ; and these 
descriptions are conceived in terms which will ap- 
pear in no small degree impressive, even to the mo- 
dern reader of an English translation. Doubtless, 
they would operate with much greater force upon 
the minds of those to whom they were immediately 
directed. The terror which they seem well-cal- 
culated to inspire, would be to many tempers a 
powerful application. 

3. On the other hand, his voluptuous paradise, 
his robes of silk, his palaces of marble, his rivers 
and shades, his groves and couches, his wines, his 
dainties, and, above all, his seventy-two virgins as- 
signed to each of the faithful, of resplendent beauty 
and eternal youth, intoxicated the imaginations, and 
seized the passions of his Eastern followers. 

4. But Mahomet's highest heaven was reserved 
for those M'ho fought his battles, or expended their 
fortunes in his cause : — **Those believers who sit still 
at home, not having an^hurt, and those who em- 
ploy their fortunes and their persons for the religion 
of God, shall not be held equal. God hath pre- 



* Sale's Koran, c. ii. p. 17. f lb. c. xliii. p. 393. 

+ lb. c.xxii. p. 281. 



S76 



THE EVIDENCES 



ferred those who employ their fortunes and their 
persons in that cause, to a degree above those who 
sit at home. God hath indeed promised every one 
Paradise; but God hath preferred those who Jight 
Jor the faith, before those who sit still, by adding 
unto them a great reward; by degrees of honour 
conferred upon them from him, and by granting 
them forgiveness and. mercy*." 

Aij;ain5 " Do ye reckon the giving drink to the 
pilgrims, and the visiting ihe holy temple, to be ac- 
tions as meritorious as those performed by him who 
believeth in God and the last day, ^xi^jighteth for 
the religion of God? They shall not be held equal 
with God. They who have believed, and fled their 
country, and employed their substance and their 
persons in the defence of God's true religion, shall 
be in the highest degree of honour with God ; anci 
these are they who shall be happy. The Lord 
sendeth them good tidings of mercy from him and 
good-will, and of gardens wherein they shall enjoy 
lasting pleasures. They shall continue therein for 
ever, for with God is a great reward 'f ;" and, once 
more : " Verily, God hath purchased of the true be- 
lievers their souls and their substance, promising 
them the enjoyment of Paradise, on condition that 
ihe^Jight for the cause of Gad; whether they slay 
or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly 
due by the Law and the Gospel and the Koran :{;." 

5. His doctrine of predestination was applica- 
ble, and was applied by him to the same pur- 



* Sale's Koran, c. ix. p 15. -f lb. c. ix. p. 164. 

+ " The sword," saitli Mahomet, " is the key of Heaven and of 
Hell; a drop of Ijlood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in 
arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer. Wiio- 
EOt'ver falls in battle, his sins are forgiven at the day of judgment ; 
his wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion, and odoriferous as 
imisk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of 
^ngels and cherubims." Giihon, vol. p. 256, 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



577 



pose of fortifying and of exalting the courage of his 
adherents, - — ''If any thing of the matter had hap- 
pened unto us, we had not been slain here. — 
Aiuzver. If ye had been in your houses, verily they 
would have gone forth io fight, whose slaughter was 
decreed to the places where they died 

6. In warm regions the appetite of the sexes is 
ardent, the passion for inebriating hquors moderate. 
In compliance with this distinction, although Ma- 
homet laid a restraint upon the drinking of wine, 
in the use of women he allowed an almost un- 
bounded indulgence. Four wives, with the liberty 
of changing them at pleasure together with the 
persons of all his captives J, was an irresistible bribe 
to an Arabian warrior. ''God is minded," says he, 
speaking of this very subject, " to make his religion 
light unto you ; for man was created weak." How 
different this from the unaccommodating purity of 
the Gospel ! How would Mahomet have succeeded 
with the Christian lesson in his mouth," Whoso- 
ever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath 
committed adultery with her already in his heart?" 
It must be added, that Mahomet did not venture 
upon the prohibition of wine till the fourth year of 
the Hegira, or the seventeenth of his mission ||,when 
his military successes had completely established 
his authority. 

The same observation holds of the Fast of the 
Jlamadan §, and of the most laborious part of his 
institution, tlie Pilgrimage to Mecca ^. 

What has hitherto been collected from the records 



* Sale's Koran, c iii. p. 54. + lb. c. iv. p. G3. 

X Gibbon, p. 225. 

|l Mod. Uiiiv Hist. vol. i. p. 126. § lb. p, 112. 

\ This latter, however, already prevailed amongst tiie Arabs, 
and had grown out of their excessive veneration lor the Caaba. — • 
Mahomet's law, in this respect, was rather a compliance than an 
innovation 

»• Sale's Prelim, p. 124. 



S7S THE EVIDENCES 

of the Mussulman history, relates to the twelve or 
thirteen years of Mahomet^s peaceable preaching ; 
which part alone of his life and enterprize admits of 
the smallest comparison with the origin of Christi- 
anity. A new scene is now unfolded. The city 
of Medina, distant about ten days journey from 
Mecca, was at that time distracted by the hereditary 
contentions of two hostile tribes. These feuds were 
exasperated by the mutual persecutions of Jews 
and Christians, and of the ditlerent Christian sects 
by which the city was inhabited The religion of 
Mahomet presented, in some measure, a point of 
union or compromise to these divided opinions. It 
embraced the principles which were common to 
them all. Each party saw in it an honourable ac- 
knowledgement of the fundamental truth of their 
own system. To the Pagan Arab, somewhat em- 
bued with the sentiments and knowledge of his Jew- 
ish or Christian fellow-citizen, it offered no offen- 
sive or very improbable theology. This recommen- 
dation procured to Mahometanism a more favour- 
able reception at Medina, than its author had been 
able, by twelve years painful endeavours, to obtain 
for it at Mecca; — yet, after all, the progress of the 
religion was inconsiderable. His missionary could 
only collect a congregation of forty persons f . It 
was not a religious, but a political association, which 
ultimately- introduced Mahomet into Medina. — - 
Harassed, as it should seem, and disgusted by the 
long continuance of factions and disputes, the in- 
habitants of that city saw, in the admission of the 
prophet's authority, a rest from the miseries which 
they had suffered, and a suppression of the violence 
and fury which they had learned to condemn. After 
an embassy, therefore, composed of believers and 



* MQ.d. Univ. Hist. \ol i. p. 100. f Ibid. p. 83. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



379 



unbelievers*, and of persons of both tribes, with 
nhom a treaty was concluded of strict alliance and 
support, Mahomet made his public entry, and was 
received as the sovereign of Medina. 

From this time, or soon after this time, the im- 
postor changed his language and his conduct. Hav- 
ing now a town at his command, where to arm 
his party, and to head them v^^ith security, he enters 
upon new councils. He now pretends that a divine 
comimission is given him to attack the infidels, to 
destroy idolatry, and to set up the true faith by the 
sword 1 . An early victory over a very superior 
force, achieved by conduct and bravery, established 
the renown of his arms, and of his personal charac- 
ter Every year after this was marked by battles 
or assassinations. 

The nature and activity of Mahomet's future ex- 
ertions may be estimated from the computation, 
tiiat, in the nine following years of his life, he com- 
manded his army in person in eight general engage- 
ments §, and undertook, by himself or his lieute- 
nants, fifty military enterprizes. 

From this time we have nothing left to account 
for, but that Mahomet should collect an army, that 
his army should conquer, and that his religion 
should proceed together with his conquests. The 
ordinary experience of human affairs leaves us little 
to wonder at in any of these effects ; and they were 
likewise each assisted by peculiar facilities. 

From all sides, the roving i\rabs crowded around 
the standard of religion and plunder, of freedom 
and victory, of arms and rapine. Beside the highly 
painted joys of a carnal paradise, Mahomet reward- 
ed his followers in this world with a liberal division 
of the spoils, and with the persons of their female 



* Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. i- p. 85. f lb. p. 8S. 

J Victory ot Bedr, |b. p. 106. § Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 255, 



THE EVIDENCES 



captives ||. The condition of Arabia, occupied by 
small independent tribes, exposed it to the impres- 
sion, and yielded to the progress of a firm and re- 
solute army. After the reduction of his native pe- 
ninsula, the weakness also of the Roman provinces 
on the north and the west, as well as the distracted 
state of the Persian empire on the east, facilitated 
the successful invasion of neighbouring countries. 
That Mahomet's conquests should carry his reli- 
gion along with them, will excite little surprize, 
when we know the conditions he proposed to the 
vanquished. Death or conversion was the onl}^ 
choice offered to idolators. " Strike oft' their heads ! 
Strike off all the ends of their fingers ! Kill the 
idolators wheresoever ye shall find them f !" 

To the Jews and Christians was left the some- 
what milder alternative of subjection and tribute, if 
they persisted in their own religion, or of an equal 
participation in the rights and liberties, the honours 
and privileges of the faithful, if they embraced the 
religion of their conquerors. Ye Christian dogs, 
you know your option, — the Koran, the tribute, 
or the sword J." The corrupted state of Christian- 
ity in the seventh century, and the contentions of its 
sects, unhappily so fell in with men's care of their 
safety, or their fortunes, as to induce many to for- 
sake its profession. Add to all which, that Ma- 
homet's victories not only operated by the natural 
effect of conquest, but that they were constantly 
represented, both to his friends and enemies, as 
divine declarations in his favour. Success was evi* 
dence. Prosperity carried with it not only influ- 
ence, but proof. ^' Ye have already," says he, after 
the battle of Bedr, had a miracle shown you, ia 
two armies wiiich attacked each other ; one army 



j| Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 255. * Sale's Koran, c.Tiii. p. 140, 

t Sale's Koran, c. iv. p. 149, J Gibbon, vol. ix. p.- 337. 



Of Christianity. 



SSI 



fought for God's true religion ; but the other wera 
infidels Again, " Ye slew not those who were 
slain at Bedr; but God slew them. If ye desire a 
decision of the matter between us, now' hath a de- 
cision come unto youf." 

Many more passages might be collected out of 
the Koran to the same effect : but they are unne- 
cessary. The success of Mahometanism during this, 
and indeed every future period of its history, bears 
so litde resemblance to the early propagation of 
Christianity, that no inference whatever can justly 
be drawn from it to the prejudice of the Christian 
argument. 

For, what are we comparing ? A Galilean pea- 
sant, accompanied by a few fishermen, — with a con- 
queror at the head of his army. We compare Je- 
sus without force, without power, without support, 
without external circumstance of attraction or in- 
fluence, prevailing against the prejudices, the learn- 
ing, the hierarchy of his country; against ancient 
religious opinions, the pompous religious rites, the 
philosophy, the wisdom, the authority of the Roman 
empire, in the most polished and enlightened period 
of its existence, — with Mahomet making his way 
amongst Arabs ; collecting followers in the midst 
of conquests and triumphs, in the darkest ages and 
countries of the world, and when success in arms 
not only operated by that command of men s wills 
and persons which attend prosperous undertakings, 
but was considered as a sure testimony of divine 
approbation. That multitudes, persuaded by this 
argument, should join the train of a victorious chief; 
that still greater multitudes should, without any ar- 
gument, bow down before irresistible power, is a 
conduct in which we cannot see much to surprize 



•Jt Sale's Koran, c. iii. p. 30- 
-."^ Ih. c. viiL p. 141 



382 



THE EVIDENCES 



US ; in which we can see nothing that resembles the 
causes by which the establishment of Christianity 
was effected. 

The success, therefore, of Mahometanism stands 
not in the way of ihis important conclusion, That 
the propagation of Christianity, in the manner and 
under tiie circumstances in which it was propa- 
gated, is an unique in the history of the species. 
A Jewish peasant overthrew the religion of the 
world ! 

I have, nevertheless, placed the prevalency of 
the religion amongst the auxiliary arguments of its 
truth ; because, whether it had prevailed or not, 
or whether its prevalency can or cannot be account- 
ed for, the direct argument remains still. 

It is still true, that a great number of men upon 
the spot, personally connected with the history and 
with the author of the religion, were induced by 
w'hat they heard, and saw, and knew, not only to 
change their formea^ opinions, but to give up their 
time, and sacrifice their ease, to traverse seas and 
kingdoms without rest and without weariness, to 
commit themselves to extreme dangers, to under- 
take incessant toils, to undergo grievous sufferings, 
and all this, solely in consequence and in support 
of their belief of facts, which, if true, establish the 
truth of the religion ; — which^ if false^ they must 
have known to be so. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



383 



PART III. 



A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF SOME POPULAR 
OBJECTIONS. 



CHAPTER 1. 
The Discrepancies betxveen the several Gospels, 

I KNOW not a more rash or unphilosophical con- 
duct of the understanding, than to reject the sub- 
stance of a story, by reason of some diversity in 
the circumstances with which it is related. The 
usual character of human testimony is substantial 
proof under circumstantial variety. This is what 
the daily experience of courts of justice teaches : — 
When accounts of a transaction come from the 
mouths of different witnesses, it is seldom that it is 
not possible to pick out apparent or real inconsist- 
encies between them. These inconsistencies are 
studiously displayed by an adverse pleader ; but 
oftentimes with little impression upon the minds of 
the judges. 

On the contrary, a close and minute agreement 
induces the suspicion of confederacy and fraud. 
When written histories touch upon the same scenes 
of action, the comparison almost always affords 
ground for a like reflection. Numerous, and some- 
times important variations present themselves ; not 
seldom also, absolute and tinal contradictions; — 
yet neither one nor the other are deemed sufficient 
to" shake the credibility of the main fact. 



58i 



THE EVIDENCES 



The embassy of the Jews to deprecate the exe^ 
cution of Claud ian's onder to place his statue in 
their temple, Philo places in harvest, — Josephus in 
seed-time: both contemporary writers. No reader 
is led by this inconsistency to doubt whether such 
an embassy was sent, or whether such an order was 
given. Our own history supplies examples of the 
same kind. 

In the account of the Marquis of Argyle's death, 
in the reign of Charles the Second, we have a very 
remarkable contradiction : — Lord Clarendon re- 
lates, That he was condemned to be hanged ; which 
was performed the same day. On the contrary, 
Burnet, Woodrow, Heath, Echard, concur in stat- 
ing that he was beheaded ; and that he was con- 
demned upon the Saturday, and executed upon the 
Monday Was any reader of English history ever 
sceptic enough to raise from hence a question. 
Whether the Marquis of Argyle was executed or 
not ? Yet this ought to be left in uncertainty, ac- 
cording to the principles upon which the Christian 
history has sometimes been attacked. 

Dr. Middleton contended. That the different 
hours of the day assigned to the crucifixion of 
Christ, by John and by the other evangelists, did 
not admit of the reconcilement which learned men 
had proposed ; and then concludes the discussion 
with this hard remark: — " We must be forced, 
with several of the critics, to leave the difficulty just 
as we found it, chargeable with all the consequences 
of manifest inconsistency f But what are these 
consequences ? By no means the discrediting of 
the history as to the principal fact, by a repugnancy 
(even supposing that repugnancy not to be resolv- 
able into different modes of computation) in the 



* See Biog. Britan. 

+ Middletoii's Reflections answered by Benson, Hist, of Christ, 
vol. iii. J). 60. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



385 



lime of tbe day in which it is said to have taken 
place. 

A great deal of the discrepancy observable in the 
Gospels, arises from omission ; from a fact or a 
passage of Christ's life being noticed by one writer, 
which is unnoticed by another. Now, omission is 
at all times a very uncertain ground of objection. 
We perceive it, not only in the comparison of dif- 
ferent writers, but even in the same writer, when 
compared with himself. 

There are a great many particulars, and some of 
them of importance, mentioned by Josephus in his 
Antiquities, which, as we should have supposed, 
ought to have been put down by him in their place 
in the Jewish Wars 

Suetonius, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, have all three 
written of the reign of Tiberius. Each has men- 
tioned many things omitted by the rest-f ; yet rio 
objection is from thence taken to the respective 
credit of their histories. 

We have in our own times, if there were not 
something indecorous in the comparison, the life of 
an eminent person written by three of his friends, 
in which there is very great variety in the incidents 
selected by them ; some apparent, and, perhaps, 
some real contradictions ; yet without any impeach- 
ment of the substantial truth of their accounts, of 
the authenticity of the books, of the competent in- 
formation or general hdehty of the writers. 

But these discrepancies will be still more numer- 
ous, when men do not write histories but memoii^s ; 
which is perhaps the true name and proper descrip- 
tion of the Gospels ; that is, when they do not un- 
dertake, or ever meant to deliver, in order of time, 
a regular and complete account of all the things of 



Lard. p. i. vol. ii. p. 7o6. et seq- 
i- Ih. p. 748. 

C C 



^86 



tHE EVIDENCES 



importance which the person who is the subject 
of their history, did or said ; but only, out of many 
similar ones, to give such passages, or such actions 
and discourses, as offered themselves more imme- 
diately to their attention, came in the way of their 
enquiries, occurred to their recollection, or were 
suggested by their particular design at the time of 
writing. 

This particular design may appear sometimes, 
but not always, nor often. Thus I think that the 
particular design which Saint Matthew had in view 
whilst he was writing the History of the Resurrec- 
tion, was to attest the faithful performance of 
Christ's promise to his disciples to go before them 
into Galilee ; because he alone, except Mark, who 
seems to have taken it from him, has recorded this 
promise, and he alone has confined his narrative 
to that single appearance to the disciples which ful- 
filled it. It was the preconcerted, the great and 
most public manifestation of our Lord's person ; — 
it was the thing which dwelt upon Saint Matthew's 
mind, and he adapted his narrative to it. But that 
there is nothing in Saint Matthew's language which 
negatives other appearances, or which imports that 
this his appearance to his disciples in Galilee, in 
pursuance of his promise, was his first or only ap- 
pearance, is made pretty evident by Saint Mark's 
Gospel, which uses the same terms concerning the 
appearance in Galilee as Saint Matthew uses, yet 
itself records two other appearances prior to this : — 

Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he 
goeth before you into Galilee, then shall ye see him 
as he said unto you." Ch. xvi. 7- 

We might be apt to infer from these words, that 
this was the first time they were to see him ; at 
least, we might infer it with as much reason as we 
draw the inference from the same words in Mat- 
thew ; yet the historian himself did not perceive ^ 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 387 

that he was leading his readers to any such conclu- 
sion ; for, in the twelfth and two following verses of 
this chapter, he informs us of two appearances, 
which, by comparing the order of events, are shown 
to have been prior to the appearance in Galilee. — 

He appeared in another form unto two of them 
as they walked and went into the country ; and they 
went and told it unto the residue ; neither believed 
they them. Afterwards, he appeared unto the 
eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them 
with their unbelief, because they believed not them 
that had seen him after he was risen." 

Probably, the same observation, concerning the 
particular design which guided the historian, may 
be of use in comparing many other passages of 
the Gospels, 



c c ^ 



3SS THE EVIDEXCE.^ 



CHAPTER IL 

Eri'oneoiis Opinions imputed to the Jpostles, 

A SPECIES of candour, which is shown towards 
every other book, is sometimes refused to the Scrip- 
tures ; and that is, the placing of a distinction be- 
tween judgment and testimony. We do not usually 
question the credit of a w^riter, by reason of an 
opinion he may have delivered upon subjects un-* 
connected with his evidence ; and even upon sub- 
jects connected v\ith his account, or mixed with it 
in the same discourse or writing ; we naturally sepa- 
rate facts from opinions, testimony from observa- 
tion, narrative from argument. 

To apply this equitable consideration to the 
Christian records, much controversy and much ob- 
jection has been raised, concerning the quotations 
of the Old Testament found in the New; some of 
w hich quotations, it is said^ are applied in a sense 
and to events apparently different from that which 
they bear, and from those to which they belong, in 
the original. It is probable to my apprehension, that 
man}^ of those quotations were intended by the 
writers of the New Testament as nothing more than 
accommodations. They quoted passages of their 
Scripture which suited, and fell in with the occa- 
sion before them, without always undertaking tci 
assert that the occasion was in the view of the au- 
thor of the words. 

Such accommodations of passages from old au- 
thors, from books especially which are in every 
one's hands, are common with writers of all coun- 
tries ; but in none, perhaps, were more to be ex- 
pected than in the writings of the Jews, whose 
literature was almost entirely confined to their 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 389 

Scriptures. Those prophecies which are alleged with 
more solemnity, and which are a.ccompanied with 
a precise declaration that they originally respected 
the event then related, are, I think, truly alleged ; 
but were it otherwise, Is the judgment of the wri- 
ters of the New Testament, in interpreting pas- 
sages of the Old, or sometimes, perhaps, in receiv- 
ing estahlished interpretations, so connected either 
with their veracity, or with their means of informa- 
tion concerning what was passing in their own times 
as that a critical mistake, even were it clearly made 
out, should overthrow their historical credit? — 
Does it diminish it ? H^s it any thing to do with 
it? 

Another error, imputed to the first Christians, 
was the expected approach of the day of j idi>;- 
ment. I would introduce this objection by a remark 
upon what appears to me a somewhat similar ex- 
ample. Our Saviour, speaking to Peter of John, 
said, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that 
to thee *?" These words we find had been so mis- 
construed, as that a report" from thence vvcnt 
abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should 
not die." 

Suppose that this had come dowai to us amongst 
the prevailing opinions of the early Christians, and 
that the particular circumstance from which tlie 
mistake sprang had been lost (which, humanly, 
speaking, was most likely to have been the case) 
some at this day would have been ready to regard 
and quote the error as an impeachment of the 
whole Christian system. Yet, with now little jus- 
tice such a conclusion would liave been drawn, or 
rather such a presumption taken up, the informa- 
tion w^hich we happen to possess, enables us now 
to perceive. 

To those who think that the Scriptures lead us 



* John xxi. 22. 



THE EVIDENCES 



to believe that the early Christians, and even the 
apostles, expected the approach of the day of judg- 
ment ill their own times, the same reflection will 
occur as that which we have made with respect tq 
the more partial, perhaps and temporary, but still 
no less ancient, error, concerning the duration of 
Saint John's life. It w as an error, it may be likewise 
said, which would effectually hinder those who en- 
tertained it from acting the part of impostors. 

The difficulty which attends the subject of the 
present chapter, is contained in this question : — If 
y\e once admit the fallibility of the apostolic judg- 
ment, where are w^e to stop, or in what can we rely 
upon it? To which question, as arguing with un- 
believers, and as arguing for the substantial truth 
of the Christian history, and for that alone, it is 
competent to the advocate of Christianity to reply, 
Give me the apostles testimony, and I do not stand 
in need of their judgment. Give me the facts, and 
I have complete security for every conclusion I 
■want. 

But, although I think that it is competent to the 
Christian apologist to return this answer, I do not 
think that it is the only answer which the objection 
is capable of receiving. The two following cau- 
tions, founded, I apprehend, in the most reason- 
able distinctions, will exclude all uncertainty upon 
this head which can be attended with danger: — 

First, To separate what was the object of the 
apostolic mission, and declared by them to be so, 
from what was extraneous to it, or only incident- 
ally connected with it. Of points cleaily extrane- 
ous to the religion, nothing need be said ; — of 
points incidentally connected with it, something 
may be added. Demoniacal possession is one of 
these points ; concerning the reality of which, as 
this place wall not admit the examination, or even 
the production of the arguments on either side of 



OF CHRISTIANITY. SQl 

the question, it would be arrogance in me to deliver 
any judgnient ; and it is unnecessary ; — for what I 
am concerned to observe is, That they even who 
think it was a general but erroneous opinion of 
those times, and that the writers of the New Tes- 
tament, in common with other Jewish writers of 
that age, fell into the manner of speaking and of 
thinking upon the subject which then universally 
prevailed, need not be alarmed by the concession, 
as though they had any thing to fear from it for the 
truth of Christianity. 

The doctrine was not what Christ brought into 
the world. It appears in the Christian records, in- 
cidentally and accidentally, as being the subsisting 
opinion of the age and country in which his minis- 
try was exercised. It was no part of the object of 
his revelation to regulate men's opinions concern- 
ing the action of spiritual substances upon animal 
bodies: — at any rate, it is unconnected with tes- 
timony. If a dumb person was by a word restored 
to the use of his speech, it signifies little to what 
cause the dumbness vvas ascribed ; and the like of 
every other cure wrought upon those who are said 
to have been possessed. The malady was real, the 
cure was real, whether the popular exphcation of 
the cause was well founded or not. The matter of 
fact, the change, so far as it was an object of sense 
or of testimony, was^i^ either case the same. 

Secondly, That, in reading the apostolic writings, 
we distinguish between their doctrines and their ar- 

o 

guments. Their doctrines came to them by Reve- 
lation, properly so called ; yet in propounding these 
doctrines in their writings or discourses, they were 
wont to illustrate, support, and enforce them, by 
such analogies, arguments, and considerations, as 
their own thoughts suggested. 

Thus the call of tlie Gentiles ; that is, the admis^ 
pion of the Gentiles to the Christian profession 



THE EVIDENCES 



without a previous subjection to the law of Moses, 
was imparted to the apostles by revelation, and 
was attested by the miracles which attended the 
Christian ministry amongst them. The aposdes' 
own assurance of the matter rested upon this foun- 
dation. Nevertheless, St. Paul, when treating of the 
subject, offers a great variety of topics in its proof 
and vindication. The doctrine itself must be re- 
ceived ; but it is not necessary, in order to defend 
Christianity, to defend the propriety of every com- 
parison, or the validity of every argument, which 
the apostle has brought into the discussion. 

The smut observation applies to some other in- 
stances ; and is, in my opinion, very well founded. 

When divine writers argue upon any point, we 
are always bound to believe the conclusions that 
their reasonings end in, as parts of divine revela- 
tion ; but we are not bound to be able to make 
out, or even to assent to, all the premises made 
use of by them, in their whole extent, unless it 
appear plainly that they affirm the premises as ex- 
pressly as they do the conclusions proved by 
them 



Garnet's Expos. A.t. 6. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 393 



CHAPTER III. 

The Connection of Christianity with the Jcxvish 
History. 

XJndoubtedly, our Saviour assumes the Divine 
origin of the Mosaic institution; and, independently 
of his authority, I conceive it to be very difficult to 
assign any other cause for the commencement or 
existence of that institution; especially for the sin- 
gular circumstance of the Jews adhering to the 
unity, when every _other people slid into Pul) theism ; 
for their being men in religion, children in every 
thing else ; behind otlier nations in the arts of 
peace and war, superior to the most improved in 
iheir sentiments and doctrines relating to the Deity*. 

Undoubtedly, also, our Saviour recognises the 
prophetic character of many of their ancient writers. 
So far, therefore, we are bound as Christians to go ; 
but to make Christianity an^^w^erable witn its life for 
the circumstantial truth of each separate passage 
of the Old Testament, the genuineness of every 
book, the information, fidelity, and judgment of 



* " In the doctrine, for example, of the unity, the eternity, the 
omnipotence, the omniscience, the omnipresence, tiit wisdom, and 
the goodness of God ; in their opinions concerning Providence, and 
the creation, preservation, and government of the world." Camp- 
bell on Mir. p. 207. To which we may add, in the acts of their re- 
ligion not being accompanied either with cruelties or impurities ; in 
the religion itself being free from a species of superstition which pre- 
vailed universally in the popular religions of the ancit nt world, and 
which is to be found perhaps in all religions that have their origin in 
human artifice and credulity, vtV. fancil'ul connections between cer- 
tain appearances and actions, and the destiny of nations or indivi- 
duals. Upon these conceits rested the whole train of auguries and 
auspices, which formed so much even of the serious part of tae reli- 
gions of Greece and Rome, and of the charms and incantatious 
which were practised in those countries by the conunon people. — 
From every thing of this sort the religion of the Jews, and of the 
Jews alone, was free Vide Prlesllifs Lectures on the Truth of the 
Jewish and Christian Revelation, Ud'k, 



THE 



EVIDENCES 



every writer in it, is to bring, I will not say great, 
but unnecessary difficulties into the whole system. 
These books were universally read and received by 
the Jews of our Saviour's time. He and his apos- 
tles, in common w^ith all other Jews, referred to 
them, alluded to them, used them. Yet, except 
where lie expressly ascribes a Divine authority to 
particular predictions, I do not know that we can 
strictly draw any conclusion from the books being 
so used and applied, beside the proof, which it un- 
questionably is, of their notoriety and reception at 
that time. In this view, our Scriptures afford a 
valuable testimony to those of the Jews ; but the 
nature of this testimony ought to be understood. It 
is surely very different from, what it is sometimes 
represented to be, a specific ratification of each par- 
> f ticular fact and opinion ; and not only of each par- 

ticular fact, but of the motives assigned for every 
action, together with the judgment of praise or dis- 
praise bestowed upon them. Saint James, in his 
Epistle says, " Ye have heard of the patience of 
Job, and have seen the end of the Lord." Not- 
withstanding this text, the reality of Job's history, 
and even the existence of such a person, has been 
always deemed a fair subject of inquiry and discus- 
sion amona;st Christian divines. Saint James's au- 
thority is considered as good evidence of the exist- 
ence of the book of Job at that time, and of its re- 
ception by the Jews, and of nothing more. Saint 
Paul, in his Second Epistle to Timothy f , has this 
similitude: "Now, as Jannes and Jambres with- 
stood Moses, so do these also resist the truth." — - 
These names are not found in the Old Testament ; 
and it is uncertain whether Saint Paul took them 
from some apocryphal w riting then extant, or fron:^ 
tradition. But no one ever imagined that Saint 



« Chap. Y. ii. 



t Cliap. iii. 8. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



Paul is here asserting the authority of the writing, if 
it was a written account which he quoted, or mak- 
ing himself answerable for the authenticity of the 
tradition ; much less, that he so involves himself 
with either of these questions as that the credit of 
his own history and mission should depend upon 
the fact, W'hether Jannes and Jambres wittistood 
IMoses, or not; for what reason a more rigorous in- 
terpretation should be put upon other references, it 
is difficult to know. I do not mean that other pas- 
sages of the Jewish history stand upon no better 
evidence than the history of Job, or of Jannes and 
Jambres (I think much otherwise) ; but I mean 
that a reference in the New Testament to a pas- 
sage in the Old, does not so fix its authority, as to 
exclude all inquiry into its credibility, or into the se- 
parate reasons upon which that credibility is found- 
ed ; and that it is an unwarrantable, as well as un- 
safe rule, to lay down concerning the Jewish iiistory 
what was never laid down concerning any other, 
that either every particular of it must be true, or the 
whole false. 

I have thought it necessary to state this point ex- 
plicitly, because a fashion, revived by Voltaire, and 
pursued by the disciples of his school, seems to 
have much prevailed of late, of attacking Christia- 
nity through the sides of Judaism. Some objec- 
tions of this class are founded in misconstruction, 
some in exaggeration ; but all proceed from a sup- 
position, which has not been made out by argu- 
ment, viz. That the attestation, which the Author 
and first teachers of Christianity gave to the divine 
mission of Moses and the prophets, extends to every 
point and portion of tlie Jewish Iiistory ; and so ex- 
tends, as to make Christianity responsible, in its 
own credibility, for the circumstannal truth (I had 
almost said for the critical exactness) of every narr 
rative contained in the Old Testament. 



S96 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER IV. 

Rejection of Christiajiity. 

^'^E acknowledge that the Christian religion, al- 
though it converted great numbers, did not produce 
an universal, or even a general conviction in the 
minds of men, of the age and countries in which it 
appeared. And this want of a more complete and 
extensive success, is called the rejection of the 
Christian History and Miracles ; and has been 
thought by some to form a strong objection to the 
reality of the facts which the history contains. 

The manner of the objection divides itself into 
two parts ; as it relates to the Jews, and as it relates 
to Heathen nations ; because the minds of these 
two descriptions of men may have been, with re- 
spect to Christianity, under the influence of very 
different causes. The case of the Jews, inasmuch 
as our Saviour's ministry was originally addressed 
to them, offers itself first to our consideration. 

Now, upon the subject of the truth of the Chris- 
tian religion ; with us, there is but one question, 
"viz. Whether the miracles were actually wrought? 
From acknowledging the miracles, we pass instan- 
taneously to the acknowledgement of the whole. No 
doubt lies between the premises and the conclusion. 
If we believe the works, or any one of them, we be- 
lieve in Jesus ; and this order of reasoning is be- 
come so universal and familiar, that we do not 
readily apprehend how it could ever have been 
otherwise. Yet it appears to me perfectly certain, 
that the state of thought in the mind of a Jew of our 
Saviour s age, was totally different from this. After 
allowing the reality of the miracle, he had a great 



©F CHRISTIANITY. 



S97 



deal to do to persuade himself that Jesus was the 
Messiah. Ihis is clearly intimated by various 
passages of the Gospel history. 

It appears that, in the apprehension of the writers 
of the New Testament, the miracles did not irre- 
iiistibly carry even those who saw them to the con- 
clusion intended to be drawn from them ; or so 
compel assent, as to leave noroomfor suspence, for 
the exercise of candour, or the effects of prejudice ; 
and to this point, at least, the evangelists may be 
allowed to be good witnesses ; because it is a point, 
in which exaggeration or disguise would have been 
the other way. Their accounts, if they could be 
suspected of falsehood, would rather have magnified 
than diminished the effects of the miracles, 

John vii. 21 — 31. Jesus answered, and said 
unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel, 
if a man on the Sabbath-day receive circumcision, 
that the law of Moses should not be broken, are ye 
angry at me, because I have made a man every whit 
whole on the Sabbath-day ? Judge not according to 
the appearance, but judge rigiiteous judgment. — 
Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he 
whom they seek to kill ? But io, he speaketh boldly, 
and they say nothing to him 1 Do the rulers know 
indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit, zee 
knoxv this man whence he is; but xvhen Christ 
oometh^ no main knozveth zvhence he is. Then cried 
Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both 
know me, and ye knov/ whence I am ; and I am not 
come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom 
ye know not. But I know him, for I am from him ; 
and he hath sent me. Then they sought to take 
him ; but no man laid hands on him, because his 
hour was not yet come. And many of the people 
believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, 
zvill he do more 'miracles than those zvhich this man 
hath done r 



59S 



THE EVIDENCE]^ 



This passage is very observable. It eKhibits the 
reasoning of different sorts of persons upon the oc- 
casion of a miracle, which persons of all sorts are 
represented to have acknowledged as real. One 
sort of men thought that there was something very 
extraordinary in all this ; but that still Jesus could 
not be the Christ, because there was a circumstance 
in his appearance which mJlitated with an opinion 
concerning Christ, in which they had been brought 
up, and of the truth of which, it is probable, they 
had never entertained a particle of doubt, viz. That 
** when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he 
is." Another sort were inclined to believe him to 
be the Messiah. But even these did not argue as 
we should ; did not consider the miracle as of itself 
decisive of the question, as what, if once allowed, 
excluded all further debate upon the subject; but 
founded their opinion upon a kind of comparative 
reasoning, — ^' When Christ cometh, will he do 
more miracles than those which this man hath done?" 

Another passage in the same evangelist, and ob- 
servable for the same purpose, is that in which he 
relates the resurrection of Lazarus : Jesus," he 
tells us (xi. 43, 44.) when he had thus spoken, 
cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth ; and 
he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot 
with grave-clothes, and his face w^as bound about 
with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, 
and let him go." One might have expected, that 
at least all those who stood by the sepulchre when 
Lazarus was raised, would have believed in Jesus. 
Yet the evangelist does not so represent it : — 
" Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and 
had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on 
him; but some of them went their ways to the Pha- 
risees, and told them what things Jesus had done.'- 
We cannot suppose that the evangelist meant by 
this account to leave his readers to imagine that 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



any of the spectators doubted about the truth of 
the miracles ; — far from it. Unquestionably he 
states the miracle to have been fully allowed ; yet 
the persons who allowed it were, according to his 
representation, capable of retaining hostile senti- 
ments towards Jesus. Believing in Jesus" was not 
only to believe that he wrought miracles, but that 
he was the Messiah. With us, there is no difference 
between these two things ; with them, there was the 
greatest : and the difference is apparent in this trans- 
action. 

If Saint John has represented the conduct of the 
Jews upon this occasion truly (and why he should 
not I cannot tell, for it rather makes against him 
than for him) it shows clearly the principles upon 
which their judgment proceeded. Whether he has 
related the matter truly or not, the relation itself 
discovers the writer s own opinion of those prin- 
ciples ; and that alone possesses considerable au- 
thority. In the next chapter, we have a reflection 
of the evangelist, entirely suited to this state of the 
case; ^' But though he had done so many miracles 
before them, yet believed they not on him The 
evangelist does not mean to impute the defect of 
their belief to any doubt about the miracles, but to 
their not perceiving, what all now sufficiently per- 
ceive, and what they would have perceived, had 
not their understandings been governed by strong 
prejudices, the infallible attestation which the 
works of Jesus bore, to the truth of his pretensions. 

The ninth chapter of Saint John's Gospel con- 
tains a very circumstantial account of the cure of a 
blind man : — a miracle submitted to all the scrutiny 
and examination which a sceptic could propose. 



* Chap. xii. 37. 



400 



THE EVIDENCES 



If a modern unbeliever had drawn up the interro- 
gatories, they could hardly have been more critical 
or searching. Tiie account contains also a very 
curious conference between the Jewish rulers and 
the patient, in which the point for oar present no- 
tice is their resistance of the force of the miracle, 
and the conclusion to which it led, after they had 
failed in discrediting its evidence : — " We know 
that God spake unto Moses ; but as for this fellow, 
we know not whence he is." That was the answer 
which set their minds at rest ; and by the help of 
much prejudice, and great unwillingness to yield, 
it might do so. In the mind of the poor man re- 
stored to sight, which was under no such bias, and 
feit no such reluctance, the miracle had its natural 
operation. Herein," says he, ''is a marvellous 
thing, that ye know not from whence he is, yet he 
hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God 
heareth not sinners ; but if any man be a worship- 
per of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. — 
Since the world began, was it not heard, that any 
man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 
If tliis man were not of God, he could do nothing." 
We do not find that the Jewish rulers had any 
other reply to make to this defence, than that 
which authority is sometimes apt to make to argu- 
ment, "Dost thou teach us?" 

If it shall be inquired. How a turn of thought, so 
different from w hat prevails at present, should ob- 
tain currency with the ancient Jews ? the answer is 
found in two opinions, which are proved to have 
subsisted in that age and country. The one was, 
their expectation of a Messiah of a kind totally con- 
trary to what the appearance of Jesus bespoke him 
to be ; the other, their persuasion of the agency of 
demons in the production of supernatural effects. 
These opinions are not supposed by us for the pur- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



401 



pose of argument, but are evidently recognized in 
the Jewish writings as well as in ours ; and it 
ou^ht moreover to be considered, that in these 
opinions the Jews of that age had been from their 
infancy brought up ; that they were opinions, the 
grounds of which they had probably few of them 
enquired into, and of the truth of which they enter- 
tained no doubt; and I think that these two opi- 
nions conjointly afford an explanation of their con- 
duct. The first put them upon seeking out some ex- 
cuse to themselves for not receiving Jesus in the 
character in which he claimed to be received ; and 
the second supplied them with just such an excuse 
as they wanted. Let Jesus work what miracles he 
would, still the answer was in readiness, " That he 
^vrought them by the assistance of Beelzebub." — 
And to this answer no reply could be made but that 
which our Saviour did make, by showing that the 
tendency of his mission was so adverse to the views 
with which this being was by the objectors them- 
selves supposed to act, that it could not reasonably 
be supposed that he would assist in carrying it on. 

The power displayed in the miracles did not alone 
refute the Jewish solution ; because the interposi- 
tion of invisible agents being once admitted, it is 
impossible to ascertain the limits by which their 
efficiency is circumscribed. We of this day may 
be disposed, possiblyj to think such opinions too 
absurd to have been ever seriously entertained. 

I am not bound to contend for the credibility of 
the opinions. They were at least as reasonable as 
the belief in witchcraft. They were opinions in 
which the Jews of that age had from their infancy 
been instructed ; and those who cannot see enough 
in the force of this reason to account for their con- 
duct towards our Saviour, do not sufficiently consi- 
der how such opinions may sometimes become very 
general in a country ; and with what pertinacityj 

D d 



402 



THE EVIDENCES 



^vhen once become so, they are for that reason 
alone adhered to. In the suspense which these 
nolions, and the prejudices resulting from them, 
miglit occasion, the candid, docile, and humble- 
minded \^ould probably decide in Christ's favour; 
the prcud and obstinate, together with the giddy and 
the thoughtless, almost universally against him. 

This state of opinion discovers to us also the 
reabon of what some choose to wonder at, Why the 
Jews should reject miracles when they saw them, 
yet rely so much upon the tradition of them in their 
own history ! It does not appear that it had ever en- 
tered into the minds of those who lived in the time of 
]\Ioses and the prophets, to ascribe tlieir miracles 
to the supernatural agency of evil beings. The so- 
lution was not then invented ; and the authority of 
Moses and the prophets being established, and be- 
come the foundation of the national polity and re- 
ligion, it was not probable that the later Jews, 
brought up in a reverence for that religion, and the 
subjects of that polity, should apply to their histoiy 
a reasoning which tended to overthrow the foun- 
dation of both. 

II. The infidelity of the Gentile world, ai>d that 
more especially of men of rank and learning in it, 
is resolvable into a principle which, in myjudgmentj 
will account for the inefficacy of any argument or 
any evidence whatever, viz. Contempt prior to ex^ 
amination. The state of religion amongst the 
Greeks and Romans had a natural tendency to in- 
duce this disposition. Dionysius Halicarnassensis 
remarks, That there were six hundred different kinds 
of religions or sacred rites exercised at Rome*'. — 
The superior classes of the community treated them 
all as fables. Can we wonder then that Christian- 



* Jortiu's Remarks on Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 371' 



OF CHRISTIANIT V, 



403 



ity was included in the number, without enquiry 
into its separate merits, or the particular grounds of 
its pretensions ? It might be either true or false, 
for any thing they knew about it. The religion had 
nothing in its character which immediately engaged 
their notice ; it mixed with no politics ; it pro- 
duced no fine writers ; it contained no curious spe- 
culations. When it did reach their knowledge, I 
doubt not but that it appeared to them a very 
strange system, — so un philosophical, — dealing so 
little in ar<^ument and discussion, — in such arj^u- 
ments however and discussions as they were accus- 
tomed to entertain. 

What is said of Jesus Christ, of his nature, of- 
fice, and ministry, would be, in the highest degree, 
alien from the conceptions of their theology. The 
Redeemer and the destined Judge of the human 
race, a poor young man, executed at Jerusalem 
M'ith two thieves upon a cross ! Still more would 
the language in which the Christian doctrine was 
delivered be dissonant and barbarous to their ears. 
What knew they of grace, of redemption, of justi- 
fication, of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of 
men, of reconcilement, of mediation ? Christian- 
ity was made up of points they had never thought 
ot^ — of terms which they had never heard. 

It was presented also to the imagination of the 
learned Heathen, under additional disadvantage, by- 
reason of its real, and still more of its nominal 
connection with Judaism. It shared in the ob- 
loquy and ridicule with which that people and their 
religion were treated by the Greeks and Romans. 

They regarded Jehovah himself only as the idol 
of the Jewish nation, and what was related of him, 
as of a piece with what was told of tutelar deities 
of other countries; nay, the Jews were in a parti- 
cular manner ridiculed for being a credulous race ; 
so that whatever reports of a miraculous nature 
p d 2 



404 



THE EVIDENCES 



came out of that country, were looked upon by t\\€ 
Heathen world as false and frivolous. When 
they heard of Christianity, they heard of it as a 
quarrel amongst this people, about some articles 
of their own superstition. Despising, therefore, as 
they did, the whole system, it was not probable that 
they would enter, with any degree of seriousness or 
attention, into the detail of its disputes, or the me- 
rits of either side. How little they kne w, and with 
what carelessness they judged of these matters, ap- 
pears, I think, pretty plainly from an example of na 
less weight than that of Tacitus, who, in a grave 
and professed discourse upon the history of the 
Jews, states, That they worshipped the effigy of an 
ass The passage is a proof how prone the learn- 
ed men of those times were, and upon how little 
evidence, to heap together stories which might in- 
crease the contempt and odium in which that peo- 
ple were holden. The same foolish charge is also 
confidently repeated by Plutarch f. 

It is observable, that all these considerations are 
of a nature to operate with the greatest force upon 
the highest ranks ; — upon men of education, and 
that order of the public from w^hich writers are 
principally taken. I may add also, upon the philo- 
sophical as well as the libertine character ; — upon 
the Antonines or Julians, not less tlian upon Nero 
or Domitian ; and more particularly upon that 
large and polished class of men, who acquiesced in 
the general persuasion, that all they had to do was 
to practice the duties of morality, and to worship 
the deity morS patrio : a habit of thinking, liberal 
as it may appear, which shuts the door against every 
argument for a new religion. 

The considerations above mentioned, would ac- 
quire also strength from the prejudice which men 
of rank and learning universally entertain against 



* Tacit. Hist. lib. v. c. 2. 



t Sympos. lib.iv. quoest. 5. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



405 



any thing that originates with the vulgar and illi- 
terate ; which prejudice is known to be as obstinate 
as any prejudice whatever. 

Yet Christianity was still making its way ; and, 
amidst so many impediments to its progress, so 
much difficulty in procuring audience and attention, 
its actual success is more to be wondered at than 
that it should not have universally conquered scorn 
and indifference, fixed the levity of a voluptuous 
age, or, through a cloud of adverse prejudications, 
opened for itself a passage to the hearts and un- 
derst-^ndings of the scholars of the age. 

And the cause which is here assigned for the re- 
jection of Christianity, by men of rank and learn- 
ing among the Heathens, namely, a strong antece- 
dent contempt, accounts also for their silence con- 
cerning it. If they had rejected it upon examina- 
tion, they would have wTitten about it ; they would 
have given their reasons ; — whereas what men re- 
pudiate upon the strength of some prefixed per- 
suasion, or from a settled contempt of the subject, 
of the persons who propose it, or of the manner in 
which it is proposed, they do not naturally write 
books about, or notice much in what they write 
upon other subjects. 

The Letters of the Younger Pliny furnish an ex- 
ample of this silence, and let us, in some measure, 
into the cause of it. From his celebrated corres- 
pondence with Trajan, we know that the Christian 
religion prevailed in a very considerable degree in 
the province over which he presided ; that it had 
excited his attention ; that he had enquired into the 
matter, just so much as a Roman magistrate might 
be expected to enquire, viz. Whether the religion 
contained any opinions dangerous to government? 
but that of its doctrines, its evidences, or its books, 
he had not taken the trouble to inform himself with 
any degree of care or correctness. But although 



406 



THE EVIDENCES 



Pliny had viewed Christianity in a nearer position 
than most of his learned countrymen saw it in, yet 
he had regarded the whole with such negligence and 
disdain (farther than as it seemed to concern his 
admuiistration) that in more than two hundred and 
forty letters of his which have come down to us, 
the subject is never once again mentioned. If 
out of this number, the two letters between him 
and Trajan had been lost, with what confidence 
would the obscurity of the Christian religion have 
been argued from Pliny s silence about it ! — and 
with how liule truth ! 

The name and character which Tacitus has given 
to Christianity, i^.ri^zV/Z'i//^ Superstitio (a pernicious 
superstition) and by which two words he disposes 
of the whole question of the merits or demerits of 
the religion, afford a strong proof how little he 
linew, or concerned himself to knoAv, about the 
matter. I apprehend that I shall not be contradict- 
ed, when I take upon me to assert, That no unbe- 
liever of the present age would apply this epithet 
to the Christianity of the New Testament, or not 
allow that it was entirely unmerited. Read the 
instructions ^iven by a great teacher of the reli- 
gion, to those very Roman converts of whom Ta- 
citus speaks, and given also a very few years before 
the time of which he is speaking ; and which are 
not, let it be observed, a collection of fine sayings, 
brought together from different parts of a large 
w^ork, but stand in one entire passage of a public 
letter, without the intermixture of a single thought 
w^hich is frivolous or exceptionable : — " Abhor 
that which is evil, cleave to that which is good ; 
- — be kindly afiecnoned one to another, with 
brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another; 
not slothful in business, icrvent in spirit, serving 
the Loi d ; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, 
continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



407 



necessity of saints ; given to hospitality. Bless them 
which persecute you ; bless, and curse not Re- 
joice with them that do rejoice, and weep with 
them that weep. Be of the same mind one towards 
another. Mind not high things, but condescend 
to men of low estate. Be not v^ise in your ow n con- 
ceits. Recompence to no man evil for evil. Pro- 
vide things honest in the sight of all men. If it 
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably 
with all men. Avenge not yourselves, but rather 
give place unto wrath ; for it is written, Vengeance 
is mine ! I will repay, saith the Lord ; therefore, 
if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink ; for in so doinoj, thou shalt heap coais of 
fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but 
overcome evil with good ! 

" Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers ; for there is no power but of God, — the 
powers that be, are ordained of God. Whosoever 
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance 
of God ; and they that resist shall receive unto 
themselves damnation ; for rulers are not a terror 
to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not 
be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, 
and thou shalt have praise of the same ; for he is 
the minister of God to thee for good ; — but if thou 
do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he beareth not 
the sword in vain, — for he is the minister of God, 
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth 
evil. Wherefore ye must needs be siibject, not only 
for wrath, but also for conscience sake ; for, lor 
this cause pay ye tribute als(; ; for they are Gods 
ministers, attending continually upon this YCiy 
thmg. Render, therefore, to all their dues ; tribute 
to whom tribute is due, custom to who n cusiomj 
fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. 

Owe no man any thing, but to luve one an- 
other; for he that loveth another Uath fuitilled tae 



408 THE EVIDENCES 

law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, 
Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt 
not bear false witness, Thou shalt not cov^et ; and 
if there be any other commandment, it is briefly 
comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his 
neighbour ; therefore, love is the fulfiUing of the 
law. 

And that, knowing the time, that now it is 
high time to awake out of sleep ; for now is our 
salvation nearer than when we believed. The night 
is far spent, the day is at hand ; let us therefore 
cast off' the works of darkness, and let us put on 
the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in 
the day^ — not in rioting and drunkenness, not in 
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and en- 
vying 

Read this, and then think of e.vitiabilis supei^sti- 
tio ! P' Or if it be not allowed, in contending with 
Heathen authorities, to produce our books against 
theirs, we may at least be permitted to confront 
theirs with one another. 

Of this pernicious superstition," what could 
Pliny find to blame, when he was led by his office 
to institute something like an examination into the 
conduct and principles of the sect } He dis- 
covered nothing, but that they were wont to meet 
together on a stated day before it was light, and 
sing among themselves a hymn to Christ as a God, 
and to bind themselves by an oath, not to the com- 
mission of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of 
theft, robbery, or adultery ; never to falsify their 
word, nor to deny a pledge committed to them, 
when called upon to return it. 

Upon the words of Tacitus we may build the 
following observations : — 

First, That are well warranted in calling 



* Kom. xii. 9 ; — xiii. 13. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 409 

the view under which the learned men of that 
age beheld Christianity, an obscure and distant 
view. Had Tacitus known more of Christianity, of 
its precepts, duties, constitution, or design, how- 
ever he had discredited tiie story, he would have 
respected the principle. He would have described 
the religion differently, though he had rejected it. 
It has l&seti very satisfactorily shown, that the su- 
perstition of the Christians consisted in worshipping 
a person unknown to the Roman calendar ; and 
that the perniciousness with which they were re- 
proached, was nothing else but their opposition to 
the established Polytheism ; and this view of the 
matter was just such a one as might be expected to 
occur to a mind which held the sect in too much 
contempt to concern itself about the grounds and 
reasons of their conduct. 

Secondly, We may from hence remark, how little 
reliance can be placed upon the most acute judg- 
ments, in subjects which they are pleased to despise ; 
and which, of course, they from the first consider 
as unworthy to be inquired into. Had not Chris- 
tianity survived to tell its own story, it must have 
gone down to posterity as a pernicious supei^stition ; 
and that upon the credit of Tacitus's account, much, 
I doubt not, strengthened by the name of the 
writer, and the reputation of his sagacity. 

Thirdly, That this contempt prior to examination, 
is an intellectual vice from which the greatest fa- 
culties of mind are not free. I know not, indeed, 
whether men of the greatest faculties of mind are 
not the most subject to it. Such men feel themselves 
seated upon an eminence; — looking down from 
their height upon the follies of mankind, they be- 
hold contending tenets wasting their idle strength 
upon one another, with a common disdain of the 
absurdity of them all. This habit of thought, how- 
ever comfortable to the mind which entertains it, or 



410 THE EVlDEJwCES 

however natural to great parts, is extremely dan- 
gerous; and more apt than almost any other dis- 
position to produce hasty and contemptuous, and, 
by consequence, erroneous judguients, both of per- 
sons and opinions. 

Fourthly, We need not be surprised at many 
writers of that age not mentioning Christianity at 
all ; when they who did mention it appear to have 
entirely misconceived its nature and character ; 
and, in consequence of this misconception, to have 
regarded it with negligence and contempt. 

To the knowledge of the greatest part of the 
learned Heathens, the facts of the Christian history 
could only come by report. The books, probably, 
they had never looked into. The settled habit of 
their minds was, and long had been, an indiscrimi- 
nate rejection of all reports of the kind. With 
these sweeping conclusions truth haAh no chance ; 
it depends upon distinction. If they would not 
enquire, how should they be convinced ? It might-be 
founded in truth, though they who made no search 
might not discover it. 

" Men of rank and fortune, of wit and abilities, 
are often found, even in Christian countries, to be 
surprisingly ignorant of religion, and of every thing 
that relates to it. Such were many of the Hea- 
thens. Their thoughts were all fixed upon other 
things ; upon reputation and glory, upon wealth and 
power, upon luxury and pleasure, upon business 
and learning. They thought, and they had reason 
to think, that the religion of their country was fable 
and forgery, an heap of inconsistent lies ; which in- 
clined them to suppose that other religions were no 
better. Hence it came to pass, that when the apos- 
tles preached the Gospel, and wrought miracles in 
confirmation of a doctrine every way worthy of 
God, many Gentiles kiaew little or nothing of it, anct 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



411 



would not take the least pains to inform themselves 
about it. This appears plainly from ancient iiistory*." 

I think it by no means unreasonable to suppose 
that the Heathen public, especially that part which 
is made up of men of rank and education, were di- 
vided into two classes ; those who despised Chris- 
tianity beforehand, and those who received it. In 
correspondency with which division of character, the 
writers of that age would also be of two classes ; 
those who were silent about Christianity, and those 
who were Christians. A good man, who attended 
sufficiently to the Christian affairs, would become a 
Christian ; after which his testimony ceased to be 
Pagan, and became Christian 

I must also add, that I think it sufficiendy proved 
that the notion of magic was resorted to by the 
Heathen adversaries of Christianity, in like manner 
as that of diabolical agency had before been by tlie 
Jews. Justin Martyr alleges this as his reason for 
arguing from prophecy, rather than irom miracles. 
Origen imputes this evasion to Celsus; Jerome to 
Porphyry ; and Lactantius to the Heathen in ge- 
neral. The several passages which contain these 
testimonies, will be produced in the next chapter. 
It being difficult how-ever to ascertain in what de- 
gree this notion prevailed, especially amongst the 
superior ranks of the Heathen communities, ano- 
ther, and I think an adequate, cause has been as- 
signed for their infidelity. It is probable that, in 
many cases, the two causes would operate to- 
gether. 



* Jortin's Disc, on Christ. Rcl. p. 66, ed. 4th. 
i Hartly, Ob. p, 119. 



41£ 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER V. 

That the Chiistian Miracles are not . recited, or 
appealed to, by early Christian Writers them^ 
selves, so fully or frequently as might have been 
expected, 

I SHALL consider this objection, First, as it ap- 
plies to the letters of the apostles, preserved in the 
New Testament ; and, Secondly, as it apphes to the 
remaining writings of other early Christians. 

The epistles of the apostles are either hortatory 
or argumentative. So far as they were occupied in 
delivering lessons of duty, rules of pubUc order, ad- 
monitions against certain prevailing corruptions, 
against vice or any particular species of it, or in for- 
tifying and encouraging the constancy of the dis- 
ciples under the trials to which they were exposed, 
there appears to be no place or occasion for more 
of these references than we actually find. 

So far as the epistles are argumentative, the na- 
ture of the argument which they handle, accounts 
for the infrequency of these allusions. These 
epistles were not written to prove the truth of 
Christianity. The subject under consideration was 
not that which the miracles decided, the reality of 
our Lord's mission, — but it was that which the mi- 
racles did not decide, the nature of his person or 
power, the design of his advent, its effects, and of 
those effects the value, kind, and extent. Still I 
maintain, that miraculous evidence lies at the bot- 
tom of the argument. For nothing coqld be so 
preposterous, as for the disciples of Jesus to dis- 
pute amongst themselves, or with others, concerning 
his office or character, unless they believed that he 
had shown^ by supernatural proofs, that there waa 



OF CHRISTIANITV. 



413 



something extraordinary in both. Miraculous evi- 
dence, therefore, fornfiing not the texture of these 
arguments, but the ground and substratum, if it be 
occasionally discerned, if it be incidentally appealed 
to, it is exactly so much as ought to take place, 
supposing the history to be true. 

As a further answer to the objection, That the 
apostolic epistles do not contain so frequent, or such 
direct and circumstantial recitals of miracles as 
might be expected, I would add, that the apostolic 
epistles resemble in this respect the apostolic 
speeches; which speeches are given by a writer who 
distinctly records numerous miracles wrought by 
these apostles themselves, and by the Founder of 
the institution in their presence ; that it is unwar- 
rantable to contend that the omission or infre- 
quency of such recitals in the speeches of the apos- 
tles, negatives the existence of the miracles, when 
the speeches are given in immediate conjunction 
with the history of those miracles ; and that a con- 
clusion which cannot be inferred from the speeches, 
without contradicting the whole tenor of the book 
■which contains them, cannot be inferred from letters, 
which, in this respect, are similar only to the 
speeches. 

To prove the similitude which we allege, it may 
be remarked, that although in Saint Luke's Gospel, 
the apostle Peter is represented to have been pre- 
sent at many decisive miracles wu^ought by Christ ; 
and although the second part of the same history 
ascribes other decisive miracles to Peter himself, 
particularly the cure of the lame man at the gate of 
the temple (Acts iii. 1.) — the death of Ananias and 
Sapphira (Acts v. 1.) — the cure of ^neas (Acts ix. 
34.) — the resurrection of Dorcas (Acts ix. 40.) — yet, 
out of six speeches of Peter, preserved in the Acts, 
I know but two in which reference is made to the 
miracles wrought by Christ ; and only one in which 



41^ THE EVIDEKCES 

lie refers to miraculous powers possessed by himself. 
In his speech upon the day of Pentecost, Peter ad- 
dresses his audience with great solemnity thus: — 
" \^e men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of 
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by 
miracles, and w^onders, and signs, which God did 
by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also 
know*V'&c. In his speech upon the conversion 
of Cornelius, he dehvers his testimony to the mi- 
racles performed by Christ in these words: — We 
are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the 
land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem f." But in tliis^ 
latter speech no allusion appears to the miracles 
wrought by himf^elf, notwithstanding that the mi- 
racles above enumerated all preceded the time in 
M'hich it was delivered. In his speech upon the 
election of Matthias J, no distinct reference is made 
to any of the miracles of Christ's history, except his 
resurrection. The same also may be observed of 
his speech upon the cure of the lame man at the 
gate of the temple § ; the same in his speech before 
the Sanhedrim 1| ; the same in his second apology 
in the presence of that assembly. Stephen's long 
speech contains no reference whatever to miracles, 
though it be expressly related of him, in the book 
which preserves the speech, and ahiiost immediately- 
before the speech, " that he did great wonders and 
nnracles among the people Again, although 
miracles be expressly attributed to Saint Paul in the 
Acts of the Apostles, first generally, as at Iconium 
(Acts xiv. 3.) during the whole tour through the 
Upper Asia (xiv. 27. xv, 19,.), at Ephesus (xix. ]1> 
12.); secondly, in specific instances, as the blind- 
ness of Elymas at Paphos**, the cure of the cripple 
at Lystra f f, of the pythoness at Philippi Jf, the 



* Acts ii. 22. 
f Yi. 8. 



t X. 39. 
xiii. U. 



t i- 15. 
ft xiv. 8. 



§ iii. 12. {I iv. 8» 

tt xyL 16, 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



415 



miraculous liberation from prison in the same city 
the restoration of Eutychus J, the predictions of 
his shipwreck the viper at Melita|l, the cure of 
Publius's father ^ : — at all which miracles, except 
the first two, the historian himself was present ; — 
notwithstanding, I say, this positive ascription of mi- 
racles to Saint Paul, yet in the speeches deUvered 
by him, and given as delivered by him, in the same 
book in which the miracles are related and the mi- 
raculous powers asserted, the appeals to his own 
miracles, or indeed to any miracles at all, are rare 
and incidental. In his speech at Antioch in Pisi- 
dia there is no allusion but to the resurrection. 
In his discourse at Miletus ft? ^one to any miracle ; 
none in his speech before Felix none in his 
speech before Festus||||, except to Christ's resur* 
rection and his own conversion. 

Agreeably hereunto, in thirteen letters ascrib- 
ed to Saint Paul, we have incessant references to 
Christ s resurrection, frequent references to his own 
conversion, three indubitable references to the mi- 
racles which he wrought ^^j, four other references 
to the same, less direct, yet highly probable ; 
but more copious or circumstantial recitals we have 
not. The consent, therefore, between Saint Paul's 
speeches and letters, is in this respect sufficiently 
exact ; and the reason in both is the same, namely, 
That the miraculous history was all along presup- 
posed, and that the question which occupied the 
speaker's and the writer s thoughts was this, Wiie- 
ther, allowing the history of Jesus to be true, he 
was upon the strength of it to be received as the 
promised Messiah ? and, if he was, What were the 



t Acts XYi. 26. I XX. 10. § xxvii. r. jj xxviii. Q. 

% xxviii. 8. ** xiii. 16. tf xx. 17. §§ xxiv. 10. 

111! XXV. 8. ^^Gal.iii.5. Rom.xv. 18, 19. 2 Cor. xii. 12, 

1 Cor. ii. 4, 6. Eph. iii. 7, Gi:i. ii. 8, I Tiiess i. 5. 



416 tllbZ EVIDENCES 

consequences ? — what was the object and benefit 
of his mission ? 

The general observation which has been made 
upon the apostolic writings, namely, that the subject 
of which they treated did not lead them to any direct 
recital of the Christian History, belongs also to the 
wriiings of the apostolic fathers. The epistle of 
Barnabas is, in its subject and general composition, 
much like the episde to tlie Hebrews, an allegorical 
application of divers passages of the Jewish His- 
tory, of their law^ and ritual, to those parts of the 
Christian dispensation in which the author per- 
ceived a resemblance. The epistle of Clement was 
written for the sole purpose of quieting certain dis- 
sentions that had arisen amongst the members of 
the Church of Corinth, and of reviving in their 
minds that temper and spirit of which their prede- 
cessors in the Gospel had left them an example. 

The works of Hermas is a vision ; quotes neither 
the Old Testament nor the New ; and merely falls 
now and then into the language and the mode of 
speech which the author had read in our Gospels. 

The epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius had, for 
their principal object, the order and discipline of 
the churches which they addressed. Yet, under all 
these circumstances of disadvantage, the great points 
of the Christian history are fully recognized. This 
hath been shown in its proper place. 

There is, however, another class of writers, to 
whom the answer above given, 'viz. The unsuitable- 
ness of any such appeals or references as the ob- 
jection demands, to the subjects of which the writ- 
ings treated does not apply ; and that is, the class 
of ancient apologists, whose declared design it was 
to defend Christianity, and to give the reasons of 
their adherence to it. It is necessary, therefore, to 
inquire how the matter of the objection stands in 
these. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



417 



The most ancient apologist, of whose works we 
have the smallest knowledge, is Quadratus. Quad^ 
ratus lived about seventy years after the Ascension; 
and presented his Apology to the emperor Adrian. 
From a passage of this work, preserved in Euse- 
bins, it appears that the author did directly and 
formally appeal to the miracles of Christ, and in 
.terms as express and confident as we could desire. 
The passage (which has been once already stated) 
is as follows : — The works of our Saviour were 
always conspicuous, for ihey were real ; both they 
that were healed, and they that were raised from 
the dead, were seen, not only when they were 
healed or raised, but for along time afterwards, — - 
not only whilst he dwelled on this earth, but also 
after his departure, and for a good while after it ; 
insomuch as that some of them have reached to our 
times'^." Nothing can be more rational or satis- 
factory than this. 

Justin Martyr, the next of the Chribtian apo- 
logists whose work is not lost, and who followed 
Quadratus at the distance of about thirty years, has 
touched upon passages of Christ's history in so 
many places, that a tolerably complete account of 
Christ's life mig;ht be collected out of his works. 

In the following quotation, he asserts the per- 
formance of miracles by Christ, in words as strong 
and positive as the language possesses : — 

Christ healed those who from their birth were 
blind, and deaf, and lame ; causing, by his word, 
one to leap, another to hear, and a third to see ; 
and having raised the dead, and caused them to 
live, he, by his works, excited attention, and induced 
the men of that age to know him ; — who, however, 
seeing these things done, said that it was a magica] 
appearance, and dared to call him a Magician, an4 
a Deceiver of the people |." 



* Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c 3. + Just. Pial. p. 368. Thirby. 

E 6 



418 



THE EVIDENCES 



In bis first apology*, Justin expressly assigns the 
reason for his having recourse to the argument from 
prophecy, rather than alleging the miracles of the 
Christian history ; which reason was, That the per- 
sons with whom he contended w^ould ascribe these 
miracles to magic, — " Lest any of our opponents 
should say, What hinders, but that he who is called 
Christ by us, being a man sprung from men, per- 
formed the miracles which we attributed to him bv 
maoical art ?" The suggestion of this reason meets, 
as I apprehend, the very point of the present objec- 
tion ; more especially when we find Justin followed 
in it by other writers of that age. 

Irer.a^us, who came about forty years after him, 
notices the same evasion in the adversaries of Cliris- 
tinDity ; and replies to it by the same argument : — 
*^ But, if they shall say That the Lord performed 
these thi igs by an illusory appearance {(^:iv~a-vA^^ 
leading ttjese objectors to the prophecies, we will 
shew from them that all things were thus predicted 
concerning him, and strictly came to passf." 

Lactaiitius, w^ho lived a century lower, delivers 
the same sentiment, upon the same occasion: — 
"He perfor:i ed miracles. — We migiit have sup- 
posed him to have been a magician, as ye say, and 

the Jews then supposed, it all the prophets had 
not with one spn'it foretold that Ciirist would per- 
:form these very things J." 

But to return to the Christian apologists in their 
order. TertuUian: — That person whom the Jews 
had vamly imagined, from the meanness of his ap- 
pearance, to be a mere man, they afterwards, in 
con-equence of the power he exerted, considered 
as a magician, when he, with one word, ejected 
deviis out of the bodies of men, gave sight to the 
blind, cleansed the leprous, strengtliened the nerves 



* Apol. prim. p. 48, 
Lac V, 3. 



+ Iren. I. ii. c. 57. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



of those that had the palsy ; and, lastly, with one 
command, restored the dead to life ; — when he, 
I say, made the very elements obey him, assuaged 
storms, walked upon the seas, demonstrating himself 
to be the Word of GodV 

Next, in the catalogue of professed apologists, we 
may place Origen, who, it is vvell known, published 
a formal defence of Christianity, in answer to Cel- 
sus, a Heathen, who had written a discourse against 
it. I know no expressions by which a plainer or 
more positive appeal to the Christian miracles can 
be made, than the expressions used by Origen : 

Undoubtedly, we do think him to be the Christ, 
and the Son of God, because he healed the lame 
and the blind ; and we are the more confirmed in 
this persuasion by what is written in the prophe- 
cies : — * Then shall the eyes of the blind be open- 
ed, and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the 
lame man shall leap as an hart.' — But that he 
also raised the dead ; and that it is not a fiction of 
those who wrote the Gospels, is evident from 
hence, that if it had been a fiction, there would 
have been many recorded to be raised up, and such 
as had been a long time in their graves ; — but it 
not being a fiction, few have been recorded. For 
instance, the daughter of the ruler of a synagogue, 
of whom I do not know why he said ' She is not 
dead, but sleepeth,' expressing something peculiar 
to her, not common to all dead persons ; and the 
only son of a widow, on whom he had compassion, 
and raised him to life, after he had bid the bearers 
of the corpse to stop ; and the thirds Lazarus, who 
had been buried four days." 

This is positively to assert the miracles of Christ, 
and it is also to comment upon them, and that with 
a considerable degree of accuracy and candour. 



* Tertnll. Apolog. p. 20 ed. Priprii, Par. 1675. 

E ^ 2 



420 



THE EVIDENCES 



In another passage of the same author, we meet 
with the old solution of magic applied to the mi- 
racles of Christ by the adversaries of the religion. 

Celsus,"saith Origen, '^well knoAving what great 
works may be alleged to have been done by Jesus, 
pretends to grant that the things related of him are 
true ; such as healing diseases, raising the dead, 
feeding; multitudes with a few loaves, of which large 
frao-Qients were left 

And then Celsus gives, it seems, an answer to 
these proofs of our Lord's mission, which, as Ori- 
gen understood it, resolved the phenomena into 
magic ; for Origen begins his reply by observing, 
"You see that Celsus in a manner allows that there 
is such a thing as magic f." 

It appears also, from the testimony of Saint Je- 
rome, that Porphyry, the most learned and able of 
the Heathen writers against Christianity, resorted 
to the same solution : — Unless," says he, speak- 
ing to Vigilantius, according to the manner of the 
Gentiles and the profane, of Poi^phyry and Euno- 
mius, you pretend that these are the tricks of de- - 
mons 

This magic, these demons, this illusory appear- 
ance, this comparison with the tricks of jugglers, 
by which many of that age accounted so easily for 
the Christian miracles, and which answers the ad- 
vocates of Christianity often thought it necessary to 
refute by arguments drawn from other topics, and 
particularly from prophecy (to which, it seems, 
these solutions did not apply) we now perceive to 
be gross subterfuges. That such reasons were ever 
seriously urged and seriously received, is only a 
proof what a gloss and varnish Fashion can give to 
any opinion. 



* Orig. cont. Cels. iib.ii. s©ct. 48. 

4 Lard. JcaWsIi and Heathen Test, vol, ii. p. 294; ed. 4t9. 
% Jerome cont Vigil. 



OF CflRISTIANlTY. 



421 



It appears, therefore, that the miracles of Christ, 
understood as we understand them, in their hterai 
and historical sense, were positively and precisely 
asserted and appealed to by the apologists for 
Christianity ; which answers the allegation of the 
objection. 

I am ready, however, to admit, that the ancient 
Christian advocates did not insist upon the miracles 
in argument so frequently as I should have done. 
It w'as their lot to contend with notions of magical 
agency, against which the mere production of the 
facts was not sufficient for the convincins^ of their 
adversaries : I do not know whether they themselves 
thought it quite decisive of the controversy; — but 
since it is proved, I conceive, with certainty, that 
the sparingness with which they appealed to mi- 
racles was owin^ neither to their io^norance, nor 
their doubt of the facts, it is, at any rate, an objec- 
tion not to the truth of the history, but to the judg- 
ment of its defenders. 



422 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER VI. 

JFant of Universality in the Knowledge and Recep^ 
tion of Christianity, and of greater Clearness in 
the Evidence. 

O F a revelation which really came from God, the 
proof, it has been said, would in ail ages be so 
public and manifest, that no part of the human 
species would remain ignorant of it, — no under- 
standin<j; could fail of beincr convinced of it. 

The advocates of Christianity do not pretend that 
the evidence of their religion possesses these quali- 
ties. They do not deny that we can conceive it to 
be within the compass of Divine Power to have 
communicated to the world a higher degree of as- 
surance, and to have given to his communication a 
stronger and more extensive influence. For any 
thing we are able to discern, God could have so 
formed men, as to have perceived the truths of re- 
ligion intuitively ; — or to have carried on a commu- 
nication with the other world, whilst they lived in 
this ; — or to have seen the individuals of the species, 
instead of dying, pass to Heaven by a sensible 
translation. He could have presented a separate 
miracle to each man's senses ; he could have esta- 
blished a standing miracle ; he could have caused 
miracles to be wrought in every different age and 
country. These, and many more methods which we 
may imagine, if we once give loose to our imagi- 
nations, are, so far as we can judge, all practi- 
cable. 

The question, therefore, is not Whether Christi- 
anity possesses the highest possible degree of evi- 
dence? but, Whether the not having more evidence 
be a sufficient reason for rejecting that which we 
have ? 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



423 



Now there appears to be no fairer method of 
judging, concerning any dispensation which is al- 
leged to come from God, when a question is made 
Whether such a dispensation could come from God 
or not? than by comparing it with other things 
which are acknowledged to proceed from the same 
council, and to be produced by the same agency. 
If the dispensation and question labour under no 
defects but what apparently belong to other dis- 
pensations, these seeming defects do not justify us 
in setting aside the proofs which are offered of its 
authenticity, if they be otherwise entitled to credit. 

Throughout that order then of nature, of which 
God is the Author, what we find is a system of be- 
neficencey we are seldom or ever able to make out a 
system of optimism, I mean, that there are few 
cases in which, if we permit ourselves to range in 
possibilities, we cannot suppose something more 
perfect, and more unobjectionable than what we 
see. The rain which descends from heaven is con- 
fessedly amongst the contrivances of the Creator, 
for the sustenation of the animals and vegetables 
which subsist upon the surface of the earth. Yet 
how partially and irregularly is it supplied 1 How 
much of it falls upon the sea, where it can be of 
no use ! — how often is it wanted, where it would 
be of the greatest ! — what tracts of continent are 
rendered desarts by the scarcity of it! Or, not to 
speak of extreme cases, how much sometin^^es do 
mhabited countries suffer by its deficiency or delay I 
We could imagine, if to imagine were our, business, 
the matter to be otherwise regulated. We couid 
imagine showers to fall just where and when they 
would do good, — always seasonable, everywhere 
sufficient ; so distributed as not to leave; a field 
upon the face of the globe scorched by drought, or 
even a plant withering for the lack ot moisture ; — 
yet, does the difference beUveen ihe ireai case and 



tftE EVIDENCES 



the imagiiled one, or the seeming inferiority of the 
one to the other, authorize us to say That the pre- 
sent disposition of the atmosphere is not amongst 
the productions or the designs of the Deity ? Does 
it check the inference which we dra^v from the con- 
fessed beneficence of the provision? — 'Or, Does it 
make us cease to admire the contrivance? 

The observation which we have exemplified in 
the single instance of the rain of Heaven, may be 
repeated concerning most of the phenomena of 
nature ; and the true conclusion to which it leads^ 
is this, That to enquire what the Deity might have 
done, could have done, or, as w-e even sometimes 
presume to speak, ought to have done, or, in hypothe- 
tical cases, w^ould have done, and to build any propo- 
sitions upon such enquiries against evidence of facts, 
is wholly unwarrantable. It is a mode of reasoning 
which wall not do in natural history, which will not 
do in natural rehgion, wdiich cannot therefore be ap- 
plied with safety to revelation. It may have some 
foundation in certain speculative a p7^iori ideas of 
the divine attributes; but it has none inexperience 
or in analogy. The general character of the works 
of Nature is, on the one hand, goodness both in 
design and effect ; and, on the other hand, a liabi- 
lity to difficulty and to objections, if such objections 
be allowed, by reason of seeming incompleteness 
or uncertainty in attaining their end. Christianity 
participates of this character. 

The true simihtude between Nature and Revela- 
tion consists in this, That they each bear strong 
marks of their original, — that they each also bear 
appearances of irregularity and defect. A system 
of strict optimism may nevertheless be the real 
system in both cases ; — but what I contend is, that 
the proof is hidden from us ; that we ought not 
to expect to perceive that in revelation which we 



It 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



425 



hardly perceive in any thing ; that beneficence of 
which we can judge, ought to satisfy us, that op- 
timism of which we cannot judge, ought not to be 
sought after. We can judge of beneficence, be- 
cause it depends upon effects which we experience, 
and upon tlie relation between the means which we 
see acting, and the ends which we see produced. — 
We cannot judge of optimism, because it necessa- 
rily implies a comparison of that which is tried with 
that which is not tried ; of consequences which we 
see — with others which we imagine ; and concern- 
ing many of which it is more than probable we know 
nothing ; concerning some that we have no notion. 

If Christianity be compared with the state and 
progress of natural religion, the argument of the ob- 
jector will gain nothing by the comparison. I re- 
member hearing an unbeliever say, '^ThatifGod 
had given a revelation, he would have written it in 
the skies.' Are the truths of natural religion written 
in the skies, or in a language which every one reads? 
or is this the case with the most useful arts, or the 
most necessary sciences of human life? An Ota- 
heitean or an Esquimaux knows nothing of Christia- 
nity ; does he know more of the principles of Deism 
or morality ? which, notwithstanding his ignorance, 
are neither untrue, nor unimportant, nor uncertain.. 
The existence of the Deity is left to be collected 
from observations, which every man does not make, 
which every man perhaps is not capable of making. 
Can it be argued that God does not exist, because, 
if he did, he would let us see him, or discover him- 
self to mankind by proofs (such as w^e may think 
the nature of the subject merited) which no inad- 
vertency could miss, no prejudice withstand ? 

If Christianity be regarded as a providential in- 
strument for the melioration of mankind, its pro- 
gress and diffusion resembles that of other causes 
by which human life is improved^ The diversity is 



426 



THE EVIDENCES 



not greater, nor the advance more slow in religion, 
than we find it to be in learning, libert}^ govern- 
ment, laws. The Deity hath not touched the order 
of nature in vain. The Jewish religion produced 
great and permanent effects ; the Christian religion 
hath done the sai^e. It hath disposed the world 
to amendment. It hath put things in a train. It 
is by no means improbable that it may become uni - 
versal ; and that the world may continue in that 
state so long as that the duration of its reign may 
bear a vast proportion to the time of its partial in- 
fluence. 

When we argue concerning Christianity, that it 
must necessarily be true, because it is beneficial, we 
go, perhaps, too far on one side ; and we certainly 
go too far on the other, when we conclude that it 
must be false, because it is not so efficacious as we 
could have supposed. The question of its truth is 
to be tried upon its proper evidence, without de- 
ferring much to this sort of argument on either side. 
** The evidence," as Bishop Butler hath rightly ob- 
served, depends upon the judgment we form of 
human conduct, under given circumstances, of 
which it may be presuuied that we know something ; 
the objection stands upon the supposed conduct of 
the Deity, under relations with which we are not 
acquainted.'* 

What would be the real effect of that overpower- 
ing evidence which our adversaries require in a re- 
velation, it is difficult to foretell ; at least, we must 
speak of it as of a dispensation of which we have no 
experience. Some consequences however would, 
it is probable, attend this economy, which do not 
seem to befit a revelation that proceeded from God. 
One is, That irresistible proof would restrain the vo- 
luntary powers too much ; would not answer the 
purpose of trial and probation ; would call for no 
exercise of candour, seriousness, humility, inquiry ; 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



427 



no submission of passions, interests, and prejudices, 
to moral evidence and to probable truth ; no habits 
of reflection ; none of that previous desire to learn 
and to obey the will of God, which forms perhaps 
the test of the virtuous principle, and which induces 
men to attend, with care and reverence, to every 
credible intimation of that will, and to resign present 
advantages and present pleasures to every reasona- 
ble expectation of propitiating his favour. " Men's 
moral probation may be, Whether they will take due 
care to inform themselves by impartial considera- 
tion ? and, afterwards, Whether they will act as the 
case requires, upon the evidence which they have ? 
and this, we find by experience, is often our pro- 
bation in our temporal capacity 

II. These modes of communication would leave 
no place for the admission of internal evidoice, 
which ought, perhaps, to bear a considerable part 
in the proof of every revelation, because it is a 
species of evidence which applies itself to the know- 
ledge, love, and practice of virtue, and which 
operates in proportion to the degree of those quali- 
ties which it finds in the person whom it addresses. 

Men of good dispositions, amongst Christians, are 
greatly affected by the impression which the Scrip- 
tures themselves make upon their minds. Their 
conviction is much strengthened by these impres- 
sions ; and this perhaps was intended to be one 
effect to be produced by the religion. It is likewise 
true, to whatever cause we ascribe it (for I am not 
in this work at liberty to introduce the Christian 
doctrine of grace or assurance, or the Christian 
promise, that, If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine whether it be of God f ") — it 



* Butler's Analog^y. part ii, c. \£ f John viii. 17, 



428 



THE EVIDENCES 



is true, I say, that they who sincerely act, or sin- 
cerely endeavour to act, accorclbig to what they be- 
lieve ; that is, according to the just result of the pro- 
babiiities, or, if you please, the possibilities in na- 
tural and revealed religion which they themselves 
perceive, and according t j a rational estimate of 
consequences, and, above all, according to the just 
effect of those principles of gratitude and devotion, 
which even the view of nature generates in a well- 
ordered mind, seldom fail of proceeding farther. 
— This also may have been exactly w^hat was de- 
signed. 

Whereas, may it not be said That irresi.nible 
evidence would confound all characters and all dis- 
positions ? would subvert, rather than promote, the 
true purposes of the divine councils, which is not to 
produce obedience by a force little short of mecha- 
nical constraint (which obedience would be legu- 
larity, not virtue, and would hardly perhaps differ 
from that which inanimate bodies pay to the law^s 
impressed upon their nature) but to treat moral 
agents agreeably to what they are ; which is done 
wiien light and motives are of such kinds, and are 
imparted in such measures, that the influence of 
them depends upon the recipients themselves ? 

" It is not meet to govern rational free agents in 
^'ia by sight and sense. 

It would be no trial or thanks to the most sen- 
sual wretch to forbear sinning, if Heaven and Hell 
T\'ere open to his sight. That spiritual vision and 
fruition is our hidXe in patina (Baxters Reasons, 
p. 357.) There may be truth in this thought, 
though roughly expressed. Few things are more 
improbable than that w^e (the human species) 
should be the highest order of beings in the uni- 
verse ; that animated nature should ascend from the 
lowest reptile to us, and all at once stop there. If 
there be classes above us of rational intelligences 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



clearer manifestations may belong to them. This 
may be one of the distinctions ; and it may be one 
to which we ourselves hereafter shall attain. 

HI. Bat may it not also be asked, Whether the 
perfect display of a future state of existence would 
be compatible with the activity of civil life, and witk 
the success of human affairs ? 

I can easily conceive that this unpression may be 
overdone ; that it may so seize and fill the thoughts, 
as to leave no place for the cares and offices of 
mens several stations, no anxiety for worldly 
prosperity, or even for a worldly provision, and, by 
consequence, no sufficient stimulus to secular in- 
dustry. Of the first Christians, we read " That all 
that believed were together, and had all things 
common ; and sold their possessions and goods, and 
parted them to all men, as every man had need ; 
and, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, 
and breaking bread from house to house, did eat 
their meat with gladness and singleness of heart 

This was extremely natural, and just what might 
be expected from miraculous evidence coming with 
full force upon the senses of mankind ; but I much 
doubt, whether, if this state of mind had been uni- 
versal, or long-continued, the business of the world 
could have gone on. The necessary arts of social fife 
M ould have been little cultivated. The plough and 
the loom would have stood still. Agriculture, ma- 
nufactures,_ trade, and navigation, would not, I 
think, have flourished, if they could have been exer- 
cised at all. I\Ien would have addicted themselves 
to contemplative and ascetic lives, instead of lives 
of business and of useful industry. 
We observe that Saint Paul found it necessary fre- 



* Acts ii. 44—4(3. 



430 



THE EVIDENCES 



quently to recall his converts to the ordinary labours 
and domestic duties of their condition ; and to giv6 
them, in his own example, a lesson of contented ap- 
pHcation to their worldly employments. 

By the manner in which the religion is now pro- 
posed, a great portion of the human species is 
enabled, and of these multitudes of every genera- 
tion are induced, to seek and to effectuate their sal- 
vation through the medium of Christianity, without 
interruption of the prosperity or of the regular 
course of human affairs. 



i. 



OF CHRISTIANITY, 



431 



CHAPTER Vir. 

The supposed Effects of Christianity, 

T HAT a religion which, under every form in which 
it is taught, holds forth the final reward of virtue 
and punishment of vice, and proposes those distinc- 
tions of virtue and vice which the wisest and most 
cultivated part of mankind confess to be just, 
should not be believed, is very possible; but that, 
so far as it is believed, shall not produce any good, 
but rather a bad effect upon public happiness, is a 
proposition which it requires very strong evidence to 
render credible. Yet many have been found to 
contend for this paradox ; and very confident ap- 
peals have been made to history and to observa- 
tion for the truth of it. 

In the conclusions, however, which these writers 
draw from what they call Experience, two sources, 
I think, of mistake may be perceived. 

One is, that they look for the influence of religion 
in the wrong place. 

The other, that they charge Christianity with 
many consequences for which it is not responsible. 

1. The influence of relio;ion is not to be sou<iht 
for in the councils of princes, in the debates or re- 
solutions of popular assemblies, in the conduct of 
governments toward their subjects, or of states and 
sovereigns towards one another ; of conquerors at 
the head of their armies, or of parties intriguing for 
power at home (topics which alone almost occupy the 
attention and fill the pages of history) ; but must be 
perceived, if perceived at all, in tlie silent course of 
private ana aomestic life. Nay more ; even there 



452 



THE EVIDENCES 



its influence may not be very obvious to observa- 
tion. If it check, in some degree, personal disso- 
luteness, if it beget a general probity in the transac- 
tion of business, if it produce soft and humane 
manners in the mass of the community, and occa- 
sional exertions of laborious or expensive bene- 
volence in a few individuals, it is all the effect which 
can offer itself to external notice. The kingdom of 
Heaven is within us. That which is the substance 
of the religion, its hopes and consolations, its inter- 
mixture with the thoughts by day and by night, the 
devotion of the heart, the controal of appetite, the 
steady direction of the will to the commands of God, 
is necessarily invisible ; — yet, on these depend the 
virtue and the hapiness of millions. This cause 
renders the representations of history, with respect 
to religion, defective and fallacious, in a greater de- 
gree than they are upon any other subject. Religion 
operates most upon those of whom history knows 
the least; upon fathers and mothers in their fami- 
lies, upon men-servants and maid-servants, upon 
the orderly tradesman, the quiet villager, the manu- 
facturer at his loom, the husbandman in his fields. 

Amongst such, its influence collectively may be 
of inestimable value, yet its effects, in the mean 
time, little upon those who figure upon the stage of 
the world. Tliey may know nothing of it ; they may 
believe nothing of it; they may be actuated by 
motives more impetuous than those which religion 
is able to excite. It cannot, therefore, be thought 
strange that this influence should elude the grasp 
and touch of public history; for, what is public 
history but a register of the successes and dis- 
appomtments, the vices, the follies, and the quar- 
rels of those who engage in contentions for power ! 

I will add. That much of this influence may be 
felt in times of public distress, and little of it in 
times of public wealth and security. This also in- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



creases the uncertainty of any opinions that we draw 
from historiqal lepresentaiioas. The influence of 
Christianity is commensurate with no effects which 
history states. We do not pretend that it has any 
such necessary and irresistible power over the af- 
fairs of nations, as to surmount the foree of other 
causes. 

The Christian religion also acts upon public 
usages and iaslitutions, by an operation which is 
only secondary and indirect. Christianity is not a 
code of civil law : it can only reach public institu- 
tions through private character. Now its influence 
upon private character may be considerable, yet 
many public usages and institutions repugnant to 
its principles may remain. To get rid of these, 
the remaining part of the community must act, and 
act together ; but it may be lon^g before the persons 
who compose this body be sufficiently touched with 
the Christian character, to join in the suppression 
of practices, to which they and the pubHc have 
been reconciled by causes wliich will reconcile the 
l^uman mind to any thing, by habit an^d interest. 

Nevertheless, the effects of Christianity, even ia 
this view, have been important It has mitigated 
the conduct of war and treatment of captives.; — -it 
has softened the administration of de-potic, or of 
nominally despotic, governments; — it has abo- 
lished polygamy ; - — it has restrained the liqentiou,s- 
liess of divorces ; — it has put an end to the expo- 
sure of children, and the immolation of slaves ; — 
it has suppressed the combat of gladiators*, and the 
impurities of religious rites ; —it has banished, if 



* Lipsius affirnis (Sat. h. i- g. 12) tJiat the Gladiatorial Shows some- 
times cost Europe twenty or thirty thousand lives in a month ; and 
that not only the men, but even the women of ail ranks, were pas- 
sionately fond of these sIjows. — See bishop Porteus's Sermons (xiii.) 

F f ' 



434 



THE EVIDENCES 



not unnatural vices, at least the toleration of them ; 
— it has greatly meliorated the condition of the la- 
borious part, that is to say, of the mass of every 
community, by procuring for them a day of weekly 
rest. In all countries in which it is professed, it 
has produced numerous establishments for the re- 
lief of sickness and poverty ; and in some, a regu- 
lar and general provision by law. It has triumph- 
ed over the slavery established in the Roman em- 
pire : it is contending, and, I trust, will one day 
prevail, against the worst slavery of the West 
Indies. 

A Christian writer ^, so early as in the second 
century, has testified the resistance which Christi- 
anity made to wicked and licentious practices, 
though established by law and by public usage : — ■ 
Neither in Parthia do the Christians, tboucrh Par- 
thians, use polygamy ; nor in Persia, though Per- 
sians, do they marry their own daughters ; nor 
among the Bactri or Galli, do they violate the sanc- 
tity of marriage ; nor wherever they are, do they 
suffer themselves to be overcome by ill-constituted 
laws and manners.'' 

Socrates did not destroy the idolatry of Athens, 
or produce the slightest revolution in the manners 
of his country. 

But the argument to which I recur is, That the 
benefit of religion, being felt chiefly in the obscurity 
of private stations, necessarily escapes the obser- 
vation of History. From the first general notifi- 
cation of Christianity to the present day, there have 
been in every age many millions, whose names were 
never heard of, made better by it, not only in their 
conduct, but in their disposition ; and happier, not 
so much in their external circumstances as in that 
which is ifile?' prcEcordia, in that which alone de- 



Bardesaues ap. Euseb. Piiep. Evang, vi. iO. 



OF CHRISTIANITT. 



435. 



serves the name of Happiness, the tranquillity and 
consolation of their thoughts. It has been, since 
its commencement, the author of happiness and 
virtue to millions and millions of the human race. 
Who is there that vvould not wish his son to be a 
Christian ? 

Christianity also, in every country in which it is 
professed, hath obtained a sensible, although not a 
complete influence, upon the public judgment of 
morals; and this is very important; for with- 
out the occasional correction which public opi- 
nion receives, by referring to some fixed stand- 
B.r4 of morality, no man can foretell into what cx- 
travao-ances it midit wander. Assassination miiiht 
become as honourable as duelling ; unnatural 
crimes be accounted as venial as fornication is 
wont to be accounted. 

In this way it is possible that many may be kept 
in order by Christianity, who are not themselves 
Christians. They may be guided by the rectitude 
w'hich it communicates to public opinion. Their 
consciences may suggest their duty truly, and thej 
may ascribe these suggestions to a njoral sense, or 
to the native capacity of the human intellect, when 
in fact they are nothing more than the public opi- 
nion, reflected from their own minds ; and opinion, 
in a considerable degree, modified by the lessons of 
Christianity. 

Certain it is, and that is a great deal to say, 
that the generality, even of the meanest and most 
vulgar and ignorant people, have truer and worthier 
notions of God, more just and right apprehensions 
concerning his attributes and perfections, a deeper 
sense of the difl^erence of good and evil, a greater 
regard to moral obligations and to the plain and 
most necessary duties of life, and a more firm and 
universal expectation of a future state of rewards 
arid punishments than, in any Heathen country, 

F f 2 



436 



THE EVIDENCES 



any considerable number of men were found to 
have had 

After all, the value of Christianity is not to be 
appreciated by its temporal effects. The object of 
revelation is to influence human conduct m this 
life ; but what is gained to happiness by that in-* 
fluence, can only be estimated by taking in the 
vrhole of human existence. Then, as hath already 
been observed, there may be also great conse- 
quences of Christianity, which do not belong to it 
as a revelation. 

The eftects upon human salvation, of the mission, 
of the death, of the present, of the future agency 
of Christ, may be universal, though the religion be 
not universally known. 

IT. I assert That Christianity is charged with 
many consequences for which it is not responsible. 
I believe that religious motives have had no more 
to do in the formation of nine-tenths of the intoler- 
ant and persecuting laws which, in different coun- 
tries, have been established upon the subject of 
Religion, than they have had to dp in England with 
the making of the Game Laws. 

These measures, although they have the Chris- 
tian religion for their subject, are resolvable into a 
principle which Christianity certainly did not plant 
(and which Christianity could not universally con- 
demn, because it is not universally wrong) which 
principle is no other than this. That they who are in 
possession of power do what they can to keep it 
Christianity is answerable for no part of the mis- 
chief which has been brought upon the world by 
persecution, except that which has arisen from con- 
scientious persecutors. 

Now these, perhaps, have never been either nu- 
merous or powerful. Nor is it to Christianity that 



* Clarke, Ev. Nat. Rev. p. 208. ed. v. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



437 



even their mistake can fairly be imputed. They 
have been misled by an error not properly Chris- 
tian or religious, but by an error in their moral 
philosophy. They pursued the particular, without 
adverting to the general consequence. Believing 
certain articles of faith, or a certain mode of wor- 
ship, to be highly conducive, or perhaps essential 
to salvation, they thought themselves bound to bring 
all they could, by every means, into them ; — and 
this they thought, without considering what would 
be the effect of such a conclusion when adopted 
amongst mankind as a general rule of conduct. 
Had there been in the New Testament what there 
are in the Koran, precepts authorizing coercion in 
the propagation of the religion, and the use of vio- 
lence towards unbelievers, the case would have 
been different. This distinction could not have 
been taken, or this defence made. 

I apologize for no species nor degree of perse- 
cution, but I think that even the fact has been ex- 
aggerated. 

The Slave-Trade destroys more in a year than the 
Inquisition does in a hundred, or perhaps hath 
done since its foundation. 

If it be objected, as I apprehend it will be, that 
Christianity is chargeable with every mischief of 
which it has been the occasion^ though not the mo- 
tive, — I answer, That if the malevolent passions be 
there, the world v/iil never want occasions. The 
noxious element will always find a conductor. Any 
point will produce an explosion. 

Did the applauded inter-community of the Pa- 
gan theology preserve the peace of the Roman 
world ? Did it prevent oppressions, proscriptions, 
massacres, devastations ? Was it bigotry that car- 
ried Alexander into the East, or brought Cassar 
into Gaul? Are the nations of the world, into 
which Christianity hath not found its way, or from 



43^ 



THE EVIDE^^CFS 



liich it hath been banished, free from contentions ? 
Are their contentions less ruinous and sanguinary ? 
Is it owing to Christianity, or to the want of it, 
that the finest regions of the East, the countries 
inter quatuor maria, the peninsula of Greece, to- 
gether with a great part of the Mediterranean 
coast, are at this day a desert? — or that the banks 
of the Nile, whose constantly renewed fertility is 
not to be impaired by neglect, or destroyed by the 
ravages of war, serve only for the scene of a fero- 
cious anarchy, or the supply of unceasing hosti- 
lities? Europe itself has known no religious wars 
for some centuries, yet has hardly ever been with- 
out war. Are the calamities which at this day 
afflict it, to be imputed to Christianity? Haiti 
Poland fallen by a Christian crusade ? Hath the 
overthrow in France, of civil order and security, 
been effected by the votaries of our religion, or by 
the foes ? Amongst the awful lessons \\ hich the 
crimes and the miseries of that country afford to 
mankind, this is one, That, in order to be a perse- 
cutor, it is not necessary to be a bigot : that in 
rage and cruelty, in mischief and destruction, Fa- 
naticism itself can be outdone by Infidelity, 

Finally, If war, as it is now carried on between 
nations, produce less misery and ruin than former- 
ly, we are indebted perhaps to Christianity for the 
change, more than to any other cause. 

Viewed therefore even in its relation to this sub- 
ject, it appears to have been of advantage to the 
world. It hath humanized the conduct of wars — 
it hath ceased to excite them. 

The differences of opinion that have in all ages 
prevailed amongst Christians, fall very much within 
the alternative which has been stated. 

If we possessed the disposition which Christian- 
ity labours, above all other qualities, to inculcate, 
tiiese differences would do little harm* If that dis- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 439 

position be wanting, other causes, even were these 
absent, would continually rise up to call forth the 
malevolent passions into action. 

Ditferences of opinion, when accompanied with 
mutual charity, which Christianity forbids them to 
violate, are for the most part innocent, and for 
some purposes useful. They promote inquiry, dis- 
cussion, and knowledge ; — they help to keep up 
an attention to religious subjects, and a concern 
about them, which might be apt to die away in the 
calm and silence of universal agreement. 

I do not know that it is in any degree true, that 
the influence of religion is the greatest where there 
are the fewest dissenters. 



440 



THE EVIDENCES 



CHAPTER YHI 
Conclusion. 

In religion, as in every other subject of human 
reasoning, much depends upon the order in which 
we dispose our enquiries. A man who takes up a 
system of divinity with a previous opinion that 
either every part must be true, or the whole false, 
approaches the discussion with great disadvantage. 
No other system, which is founded upon moral 
evidence, would bear to be treated in the same 
manner. Nevertheless, in a certain degree, we are 
all introduced to our relis^ious studies under this 
prejudication; and it cannot be avoided. 

The weakness of the human judgment in the 
early part of youth, yet its extreme susceptibihty 
of impression, renders it necessary to furnish it 
with some opinions, and w^ith some principles or 
other; or, indeed, without much express care, or 
much endeavour for this purpose, tlie tendency of 
the mind of man to assimilate itself to the habits of 
thinking and speaking which prevail around him, 
produces the same effect. That indifferency and 
suspense, that waiting and equilibrium of the judg- 
ment, which some require in religious matters, and 
which some would wish to be aimed at in the con^ 
duct of education, are impossible to be preserved. 
They are not given to the condition of human life. 

It is d consequence of this institution that the 
doctrines of religion come to us before the proofs ; 
and come to us with that mixture of explications 
and inferences from which no public creed is, or 
can be free; — and the effect which too frequently 
follows, from Christianity being presented to the. 
un Jsrstanding in this form, is, That when anj 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



441 



articles, which appear as parts of it, contradict the 
apprehensions of the persons to whom it is propos- 
ed, men of rash and confident tempers hastily and 
indiscriminately reject the whole. But is this to do 
justice either to themselves or to the religion? — 
The rational way of treating a subject of such ac- 
knowledged importance, is to attend, in the first 
place, to the general and substantial truth of its 
principles, and to that alone. When we once feel 
a foundation, when we once perceive a ground of 
credibility in its history, we shall proceed with safety 
to inquire into the interpretation of its records, 
and into the doctrines which have been deduced 
from them. Nor will it either endanger our faith, 
or diminish or altar our motives for obedience, if / 
we should discover that these conclusions are form- 
ed with very different degrees of probability, and 
possess very different degrees of importance. 

This conduct of the understanding, dictated by 
every rule of right reasoning, Vvill uphold personal 
Christianity, even in those countries in which it is 
established urider forms the most liable to difnculty 
and objection. It will also have the further effect 
of guarding us against the prejudices which are 
wont to arise in our minds to the disadvantage of 
religion, from observing the numerous controversies 
which are carried on amongst its professors ; and 
likewise of inducing a spirit of lenity and modera- 
tion in our judgment, as well as in our treatment of 
those who stand in such controversies upon sides 
opposite to ours. What is clear in Christianity, 
we shall find to be sufficient, and to be infinitely 
valuable ; what is dubious, unnecessary to be de- 
cided, or of very subordinate importance ; and 
what is most obscure, will teach us to bear with the 
opinions which others m.ay have formed upon the 
;Sabject We shall say to those who the most 



449 



THE EVIDENCES 



^videly dissent from us, what Augustine said to the 
worst heretics of his age : — 

" Illi in vos saeviant, qui nesciunt, cum quo 
labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficile, cavean- 
tur errores ; =^ — qui nesciunt, cum quanta difficultate 
sanetur oculus interioris hominis; — qui nesciunt, 
quibus suspiriis et gemitibus fiat ut ex quantula- 
cunque parte possit intelhgi Deus*." 

A judgment, moreover, which is once pretty well 
satisfied of the general truth of the religion, will 
not only thus discriminate in its doctrines, but will 
possess sufficient strength to overcome the reluctance 
of the imagination to admit articles of faith which 
are attended with difficulty of apprehension, if such 
articles of faith appear to be truly parts of the Re- 
velation. It was to be expected beforehand, that 
what related to the economy and to the persons of 
the invisible world, which revelation professes to do, 
and which, if true, it actually does, should contain 
some points remote from our analogies, and from 
the comprehension of a mind which hath acquired 
all its ideas from sense and from experience. 

It hath been my care, in the preceding work, to 
preserve the separation between evidences and 
doctrines as inviolable as I could ; to remove from 
the primary question all considerations which have 
been unnecessarily joined with it ; and to offer a de- 
fence of Christianity, which every Christian might 
read, without seeing the tenets in which he had been 
brought up attacked or decried ; and it always af- 
forded a satisfaction to my mind to observe that this 
was practicable; that few or none of our many con- 
troversies with one another 'affect or relate to the 
proofs of our religion ; that the rent never descends 
to the foundation. 



* Aug. contra Ep. Fund, cap. ii. n. 2, 3. 



OF CHRISTTAiVITT. 



443 



The truth of Christianity depends upon its lead- 
ing facts, and upon them alone. Now of these we 
have evidence which ought to satisfy us^ at least 
until it appear that mankind have ever been de- 
ceived by the same. We have some uncontested 
and incontestable points, to which the history of the 
human species hath nothing similar to offer. 

A Jewish peasant changed the religion of the 
world, and that without force, without power, with- 
out support ; without one natural source or circum- 
stance of attraction, influence, or success. Such a 
thing hath not happened in any other instance. — 
The companions of this Person, after he himself had 
been put to death for his attempt, asserted his su- 
pernatural character, founded upon his superna- 
tural operations ; and, in testimony of the truth of 
their assertions, i. e. in consequence of their own 
belief of that truth, and in order to communicate 
the knowledge of it to others, voluntarily entered 
upon lives of toil and hardship, and, with a full ex- 
perience of their danger, committed themselves to 
the last extremities of persecution. This hath not 
a parallel. 

More particularly, a very few^ days after this 
Person had been publicly executed, and in the very 
city in which he was buried, these his companions 
declared with one voice that his body was restored 
to life ; that they had seen him, handled him, eat 
with hin], conversed with him ; and in pursuance of 
their pei suasion of the truth of what they told, 
preached his religion, with this strange fact as the 
foundation of it, in the face of those who had killed 
him, who were armed with the power of the country, 
and necessarily and naturally disposed to treat his 
followers as they had treated himself ; and having 
done this upon the spot where the event took place, 
carried the intelligenqe of it abroad, in liespiie o^ 



THE EVIDENCES 



difficulties and opposition, and where the nature of 
their errand gave them nothing to expect but deri- 
sion, insult, and outrage. This is without example. 
These tiiree facts, I think, are certain, and would 
have been nearly so, if the Gospels had never been 
written. The Christian story, as to these points, 
hath never varied. No other hath been set up 
against it. Every letter, every discourse, every 
controversy, amongst the followers of the religion, 
every book written by them, from the age of its com- 
mencement to the present time, in every part 
of the world in which it hath been professed, and 
with every sect into which it has been divided (and 
^ve have letters and discourses written by contem- 
poraries, by witnesses of the transaction, by persons 
themselves bearing a share in it, and other writidgs 
following that age in regular succession) concur in 
representing these facts in this manner. 

A religion which now possesses the greatest part 
of the civilized world, unquestionably sprang up at 
Jerusalem at this time. Some account must be 
given of its origin ; some cause assigned for its rise. 
All the accounts of this origin, all the explications 
of this cause, whether taken from the writings of 
the early followers of the religion (in which, and in 
which perhaps alone, it could be expected that they 
should ba distinctly unfolded) or from occasional 
notices in other writings of that or the adjoining 
age, either expressly allege the facts above stated as 
the means by whicii the religion was set up, or ad- 
vert to its commencement in a manner which agrees 
with the supposition of these facts being true, and 
which testifies their operations and effects. 

These propositions alone lay a foundation for our 
faith ; for they prove the existence of a transaction 
which cannot even in its most general parts be ac- 
counted for upon any reasonable supposition, ex-- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



445 



cept that of the truth of the mission. But the par- 
ticulars, the detail of the miracles or miraculous 
pretences (for such there necessarily must have 
been) upon which this unexampled transaction 
rested, andjTor which these men acted and suffered,, 
as they did act and suffer, it is undoubtedly of great 
importance for us to know. We hcwe this detail 
from the fountain-head, from the persons them- 
selves ; in accounts written by eye-witnesses of the 
scene, by contemporaries and companions of those 
who were so ; not in one book, but four, each con- 
taining enough for the verification of the religion, 
all agreeing in the fundamental parts of the history. 
We have the authenticity of these books established 
by more and stronger proofs than belong to almost 
any other ancient book whatever, and by proofs 
which widely distinguish them from any others 
claiming a similar authority to theirs. If there were 
^ny good reason for doubt concerning the names to 
which these books are ascribed (which there is not, 
for they were never ascribed to any other, and w e 
have evidence, not long after their publication, of 
their bearing the names which they now bear) their 
antiquity, of which there is no question, their repu^ 
tation and authority amongst the early disciples of 
the religion, of which there is as little, form a valid 
proof that they must, in the main at least, have 
agreed with what the first teachers of the religion 
(lelivered. 

When we open these ancient volumes, we dis- 
cover in them marks of truth, whether we consider 
each in itself, or collate them with one another. — 
The writers certainly knew something of what they 
were writing about, for they manifest an acquaint- 
ance with local circumstances, with the history and 
usages of the times, which could onl}^ belong to an 
inhabitant of that country, living in that age. 



M6 



THE EVIDENCES 



In every narrative we perceive simplicity and un- 
designedness, — the air and the language of reality. 
When we compare the different narratives together, 
we find them so varying as to repel all suspicion of 
confederacy ; so agreeing under this variety, as to 
show that the accounts had one real transaction for 
their common foundation ; often attributing differ- 
ent actions and discourses to the Person whose his- 
tory, or rather memoirs of whose history, they pro- 
fess to relate ; yet actions and discourses so similar 
as very much to bespeak the same character ; which 
is a coincidence that, in such writers as they were, 
could only be the consequence of their writing from 
fact, and not from imagination. 

These four narratives are confined to the history 
of the Founder of the religion, and end with his mi- 
nistry. Since, liowever, it is certain that the affair 
went on, we cannot help being anxious to know kozv 
it proceeded. This intelligence hath come down to 
us in a work purporting to be written by a person, 
himself connected wath the business during the first 
stages of its progress, taking up the story where the 
former history had left it, carrying on the narrative, 
oftentimes with great particularity, and throughout 
with the appearance of good sense*, information, 
and candour ; stating all along the origin, and the 
only probable origin, of effects which unquestion- 
ably were produced, together with the natural con- 
sequences of situations which unquestionably did 
exist; and coirfirmed, in tl^e substance at least of 
the account, by the strongest possible accession of 
testimony which a history can receive, original 



* See Peter's speech upon cnring- the cripple (Acts iii. 12.); the 
council of the apostles (xv.) ; Paul's discourses at Athens (xvii. 22 ); 
before Agrippa (xxvi). I notice these passages, hoth as fraught with 
^^ood sense, and asS free from \[\g smallest tincture of enthusiasm. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



447 



letters, written by the person who is the principal 
subject of the history, written upon the business to 
which the history relates, and during the period, or 
soon after the period, which the history comprises. 
No man can say that tliis altogether is not a body 
of strong historical evidence. 

When we reflect that some of those from w^hom 
the books proceeded, are related to have themselves 
wTOught miracles, to have been the subject of mi- 
racles, or of supernatural assistance in propagating 
the religion, we may perhaps be led to think that 
more credit, or a difterent kir.d of credit, is due to 
these accounts than what can be claimed by merely 
human testimony. But this is an argument which 
cannot be addressed to sceptics or unbelievers. — 
A man must be a Christian before he can re- 
ceive it. 

The inspiration of the Historical Scriptures, the 
nature, degree, and extent of that inspiration, are 
questions undoubtedly of serious discussion ; but 
they are questions amongst Christians themselves, 
and not between them and others. The doctrine 
itself is by no means necessary to the belief of 
Christianity, which must, in the first instance at 
least, depend upon the ordinary maxims of histori- 
cal credibility*. 

In viewing the details of miracles recorded in 
these books, we find every supposition negatived 
by which they can be resolved into fraud or delu- 
sion. They were not secret, nor momentary, nor 
tentative, nor ambiguous ; nor performed under the 
san'ction of authority, with the spectators on their 
side, or in affirmance of tenets and practices ah'eady 
established. 



See Poweirs Discourses, disc. xv. p 245. 



448 THE EVIDENCES 

We find also the evidence alleged for tliern, and 
which evidence was by great numbers received, dif- 
ferent from that upon which other miraculous ac- 
counts rest. It was contemporary, it was publish- 
ed upon the spot, it continued ; it involved interests 
and questions of the greatest magnitude ; it contra- 
dicted the most fixed persuasions and prejudices of 
the persons to whom it was addressed ; it required 
from those who accepted it, not a simple, indolent 
assent, but a change from thenceforward of prin- 
ciples and conduct, a submission to consequences 
the most serious and the most deterring to loss and 
danger, to insult, outrage, and persecution. 

How such a stor} should he false, or, if false, 
how^ under such circumstances it should make its 
way, I think impossible to be explained ; yet such 
the Christian story was, such were the circum- 
stances under which it came forth, and in opposition 
to such difficulties did it prevail. 

An event so connected with the religion and with 
the fortunes of the Jewish people, as one of their 
race, one born amongst them, establishing his au- 
thority and his law throughout a great portion of 
the civilized world, it was perhaps to be expectedj 
should be noticed in the prophetic writings of thai 
nation; especially when this Person, together with, 
his own mission, caused also to be acknowledged the 
divine original of their institution, and by those 
who before had altogether rejected it. 

Accordingly, we perceive in these writings, va- 
rious intimations concurring in the person and his- 
tory of Jesus, in a manner and in a degree in 
w hich passages taken from these books could not be 
made to concur in any person arbitrarily assumed, 
cr in any person except him who has been the author 
of great changes in the aftairs and opinions of man« 
kind. 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



449 



Of some of these predictions the weight depends 
a good deal upon the concurrence. Others possess 
great separate strength : — one in particular does 
this in an eminent degree.! 

It is an entire description, manifestly directed to 
one character and to one scene of things ; it is extant 
in a writing, or collection of writings, declaredly 
prophetic ; and it applies to Christ's character, 
and to the circumstances of his life and death, with 
considerable precision, and in a way which no 
diversity of interpretation hath, in my opinion, been 
able to confound. 

That the advent of Christ, and the consequences 
of it, should not have been more distinctly revealed 
in the Jewish sacred books, is, I think, in some mea- 
sure, accounted for by the consideration, that for 
the Jews to have foreseen the fall of their institu- 
tion, and that it was to merge at length into a more 
perfect and comprehensive dispensation, would 
have cooled too much, and relaxed their zeal for it 
and their adherence to it ; upon which zeal and ad- 
herence the preservation in the world of any re- 
mains, for many ages, of religious truth might in a 
great measure depend. 

Of what a revelation discloses to mankind, one, 
and only one, question can properly be asked, Was 
it of importance to mankind to know, or to be better 
assured of? 

In this question, when we turn our thoughts to 
the great Christian doctrine of the resurrection of 
the dead, and of a future judgment, no doubt can 
possibly be entertained. 

He who gives me riches or honours, does no- 
thing ; he who even gives me health, does little, in 
comparison with that which lays before me just 
grounds for expecting a restoration to life, and a day 
of account and retribution; — which thmg Christian- 
ity hath done for millions. 

G g 



450 



THE EVIDENCES 



Other articles of the Christian faith, although of 
infinite importance when placed beside any other 
topic of human inquiry, are only the adjuncts and 
circumstances of this. They are, however, suchaa 
appear worthy of the original to which we ascribe 
them. 

The morality of the religion, whether taken from 
the precepts or the example of its Founder, or from 
the lessons of its primitive teachers, derived, as it 
should seem, from what had been inculcated by their 
Master, is, in all its parts, wise and pure , neither 
adapted to vulgar prejudices, nor flattering popular 
notions, nor excusing established practices, but 
calculated, in the matter of its instruction, truly to 
proojote human happiness, and, in llie form in which 
it was conveyed, to produce impression and effect : 
— a morality which, let it have proceeded from any 
person whatever, would have been satisfactory 
evidence of his good sense and integrity, of the 
soundness of his understanding and the probity of 
his designs,; a morality, in every view of it, much 
more perfect than could have been expected from 
the natural circumstances and character of the 
person who delivered it ; a morality, in a word, 
which is, and hath been, most beneficial to man- 
kind. 

Upon the greatest, therefore, of all possible oc- 
casions, and for a purpose of inestimable value, 
it pleased the Deity to vouchsafe a miraculous at- 
testation. 

Having done this for the institution, when this - 
alone could fix its authority, or give to it a begin- 
ning, he committed its future progress to the natural 
means of human communication, and to the in- 
fluence of those causes by which human conduct 
and human affairs are governed. 

The seed, being sown, was left to vegetate ; the 
leaven, being inserted, was left to ferment ; and 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



451 



both according to the laws of Nature : laws, never- 
theless, disposed and controuled by that Providence 
which conducts the affairs of the universe, though 
by an influence inscrutable, and generally undis- 
tinguishable by us ; and in this, Christianity is 
analogous to most other provisions for happiness. 

The provision is made ; and, being made, is left 
to act according to laws which, forming a part of 
a more general system, regulate this particular sub- 
ject in common with many others. 

Let the constant recurrence to our observation 
of contrivance, design, and wisdom in the work* of 
Nature, once fix upon our mind the belief of a God, 
and after that all is easy. 

In the counsels of a Being possessed of the power 
and disposition which the Creator of the universe 
must possess, it is not improbable that there should 
be a future state ; it is not improbable that we 
should be acquainted with it. 

A future state rectifies every thing ; because, if 
moral agents be made in the last event happy or 
miserable, according to their conduct in the station, 
and under the circumstances in which they are 
placed, it seems not very material by the opera- 
tion of what causes, according to what rules, or 
even, if you please to call it so, by what chance or 
caprice these stations are assigned, or these cir- 
cumstances determined. 

This hypothesis, therefore, solves all that objec- 
tion to the Divine care and goodness, which the 
promiscuous distribution of good and evil (1 do 
not mean in the doubtful advantages of riches and 
grandeur, but in the unquestionably important dis- 
tinctions of health and sickness, strength and infir- 
mity, bodily ease and pain, mental alacrity and de^ 
pression) is apt on so many occasions to create. 

This one truth chano;es the nature of things, gives 



452 



THE EVIDENCES 



order to confusion, makes the moral world of a 
piece with the natural. 

Nevertheless, a higher degree of assurance than 
that to which it is possibk to advance this, or any 
argument drawn from the light of Nature, was 
necessary, especially to overcome tliC shock which 
the imagination and the senses receive from the 
effects and the appearances of death ; and the ob- 
struction which thence arises to the expectation of 
either a continued or a future existence. 

This difficulty, although of a nature, no doubt, 
to act very forcibly, will be found, I think, upon 
reflection to reside more in our habits of apprehen- 
sion than in the subject ; and that the giving way 
to it, when we have any reasonable grounds for the 
contrary, is rather an indulging of the imagina- 
tion than any thing else. 

Abstractedly considered, that is, considered with- 
out relation to the difference which habit, and 
merely habit, produces in our faculties and modes 
of apprehension, I do not see any thing more in 
the resurrection of a dead man than in the concep- 
tion of a child, except it be this, That the one comes 
into this world with a system of prior conscious- 
ness about him, which the other does not ; and no 
person will say That he know^s enough of either 
subject to perceive that this circumstance makes 
such a difference in the two cases, that the one 
should be easy and the other impossible ; the one 
natural, — the other not so. 

To the first man, the succession of the species 
would be as incomprehensible as the resurrection 
of the dead is to us. 

Thought is different from motion, perception 
from impact ; the individuality of a mind is hardly 
consistent with the divisibility of an extended sub- 
stance; or its volition, that is, its power of origin- 
ating motion, with the inertness which cleaves to 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



453 



every portion of matter which our observation or 
our experience can reach. 

These distinctions lead us to an immaterial ^xm- 
ciple : at least they do this, they so negative the 
mechanical properties of matter in the constitu- 
tion of a sentient, still more of a rational being, 
that no argument, drawn from these properties 
can be of any great weight in opposition to other 
reasons, when the question respects the changes of 
which such a nature is capable, or the manner in 
which these changes are effected. 

Whatever thought be, or whatever it depend 
upon, the regular experience of sleep makes one 
thing concerning it certain, That it can be com- 
pletely suspended and completely restored. 

If any one find it too great a strain upon his 
thoughts to admit the notion of a substance stricdy 
immaterial, that is, from which extension and soli- 
dity are excluded, he can find no difficulty in al- 
lowing that a particle, as small as a particle of 
light, minuter than all conceivable dimensions, 
may just as easily be the depositary, the organ, and 
the vehicle of consciousness, as the congeries of 
animal substance which forms a human body, or the 
human brain ; that being so, it may transfer a pro- 
per identity to whatever shall hereafter be united 
to it, — may be safe amidst the destruction of its 
integuments, — may connect the natural with the 
spiritual, the corruptible with the glorified body. 

If it be said that the mode and means of all this 
is imperceptible by our senses, it is only what is 
true of tiie most important agencies and opera- 
tions. The great powers of nature are ail in- 
visible. 

Gravitation, electricity, magnetism, though con- 
stantly present, and constantly exerting their in- 
fluence, — though within us, near us, and about us, 



454 



THE EVIDENCES 



— though diffused throughout all space, overspread- 
ing the surface, or penetrating the contexture of all 
bodies witii which we are acquainted, depend upon 
substances and actions which are totally concealed 
from our senses. The Supreme Intelligence is so 
himself. 

But whether these, or any other attempts to sa- 
tisfy the imagination, bear any resemblance to the 
truth, or w^hether the imagination, which, as I said 
before, is the mere slave of habit, can be satisfied 
or not, when a future state, and the revelation of a 
future state, is not only perfectly consistent with 
the attributes of the Being who governs the uni- 
verse ; but when it is more, when it alone removes 
the appearances of contrariety which attend the ope- 
rations of his W'ill towards creatures capable of 
comparative merit and demerit, of reward and 
punishment ; when a strong body of historical evi- 
dence, confirmed by many internal tokens of truth 
and authenticitv, ogives us just reason to believe 
that such a revelation hath actually been made, — 
we ought to set our minds at rest with the as- 
surance, that in the resources of Creative Wisdom, 
expedients cannot be wanted to carry into efi^ect 
what the Deity hath purposed, — That either a new 
and mighty influence will descend upon the human 
world to resuscitate extinguished consciousness; or 
that, amidst the other wonderful contrivances with 
which the universe abounds, and by some of which 
W'C see animal life, in many instances, assuming im- 
proved forms of ex^istence, acquiring new organs, 
new perceptions, and new sources of enjoyment, 
provision is also made, though by methods secret 
to us (as all the great processes of nature are) for 
conducting the objects of God s moral government 
through the necessary changes of their irame, to 
those final distinctions of happiness and misery 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 



465 



which he hath declared to be reserved for obe- 
dience and transgression, for virtue and vice, for 
the use and the neglect, the right and the wrong em 
ployment of the faculties, and opportunities with 
which he hath been pleased, severally, to entrust 
and to try us. 



THE END. 



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